“When I initially learnt that the operation was to cost lakhs of rupees, I shared my parents’ worries about the source of funds,” said Gandhe. “The sum was huge and it was urgently needed and that’s when my friends stepped in,” said Gandhe, who is admitted to the Ruby Hall Clinic. Gandhe’s sister will be donating her bone marrow to him, and is already undergoing preparatory medical procedures.

Gandhe, who hails from Nashik came to Pune two years back to pursue his MBA degree at the D.Y. Patil College. His tryst with hospitals started after an accident a year back when the doctors noticed the first symptoms of leukaemia. “I had suffered a serious leg injury in a road accident, and lost a lot of blood and hence had to undergo a series of blood tests. Acting on their suspicions, the doctors advised me to undergo a bone marrow test and I was diagnosed with leukaemia in January,” said Gandhe.

A consultation at the Sahyadri Hospital followed where the doctors said that he had less time to live and advised that a transplant was the only option. “Sahyadri doctors quoted a cost of Rs 10 lakh. Though we sought a second opinion and found that the same operation could be performed at Ruby Hall for Rs 8 lakh, the exorbitant rate shocked us,” said Gandhe’s friend Abhay Bhalerao. “However the initial shock gave way to resolve and we weren’t about to let go without a fight,” said Bhalerao. And then followed the umpteen visits to hospitals, trusts, NGOs as well as requests to the Government for funding Bhushan’s treatment.

With an autorickshaw-driver father, a mother who is a housewife and a married sister, Gandhe’s treatment was next to impossible for the family. Gandhe, who recently landed a job with an IT company as a marketing executive was forced to resign within two days of joining due to his hospitalization. “However most of us friends had jobs as well as contacts in several companies and we decided to raise as much funds as we could,” said Bhalerao. Along with others like Naim Sheikh, Madhulika Singh and a few other friends explored every avenue, personal and professional.

“Recently, we received Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s Fund and Rs 10,000 from the Chief Minister’s Fund. However, what pleasantly surprised us was the empathetic monetary support that flowed in from people who have survived similar illnesses,” said Bhalerao. The struggle, however, is far from over.

Senior Consultant Hematologist at the Ruby Hall Clinic, Dr Vijay Ramnan said that Gandhe’s condition was stable. “Leukaemia does not mean ‘cancer’ always, Gandhe is suffering from chronic Myeloid Leukaemia, ‘Excess Blast’, where the white blood corpuscles accelerate rapidly and impair the functioning of the other cells. Usually the risk is small in these cases and we expect a 60-70 percent success rate after the transplant. At present Gandhe does not even look like a patient and is responding well to the treatment,” he said.