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Accomplished musicians are roped in by members of Deepshikha Cancer Care Foundation to perform at awareness camps organised in remote villages of Assam with the district administration providing the logistic support.
It has been scientifically proved that such programmes have a profound motivational influence on the minds of patients which will stimulate the immune system to fight cancer, the foundation's Chairman Devasish Sarmah said.
The national incidence of cancer is approximately 100 to 130 individuals per 1,00,000, but in the Northeast, according to the population-based cancer registry of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the incidence is highest with Assam alone adding roughly 26,000 new cancer patients every year.
Sarmah, who is also the deputy resident commissioner of Assam Bhawan in Mumbai, said the key to control cancer is early detection but due to several factors like illiteracy, poverty, myths, ignorance and fear associated with cancer, a large number of patients approach for medical treatment only in fairly advanced stages.
"Innumerable cancer patients from Assam go to the Tata Memorial Hospital for specialised treatment of cancer and we at the Assam Bhawan would take them to the hospital and try to help them in all possible ways," he said.
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Education is indeed the need of the hour. The picturesque North Eastern States of Assam, Sikhim, Arunachal, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Meghalaya need to be provided with tools to combat illiteracy, poverty, myths, ignorance and fear associated with cancer and other life threatening illness. Big towns like Guwahati, Tezpur, Gangtok, Namchi, Itanagar, Imphal, Kohima, Shillong and Aizwal do have some facilities but it is the deep and steep vast interior that needs to be looked after well. Roads, PHCs and hospitals in remote areas would certainly attract medical doctors to come to these places to display their skills of service, mission, vocation and profession.