A philanthropic “Donate a Life” fund, established by a cancer speciality hospital here, has saved the lives of 176 children suffering from blood cancer with an effective treatment. The social support has been mobilised during the last decade to deal with the curable cancers, which had earlier often led to deaths.
The fund, launched in August 2014 at Bhagwan Mahaveer Cancer Hospital, has so far registered 272 children for their multi-stage and prolonged treatment lasting one to two years. Among them, 168 have been successfully cured, and eight are under treatment with encouraging results, while 17 have died.
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Hospital’s director (Clinical Services) S.G. Kabra told The Hindu on Thursday (December 18, 2025) that several young children were deprived of treatment because of inability of their parents to bear the expenses. The estimated cost of complete treatment is ₹5 lakh, for which the philanthropists, trusts, donors and some private companies have been making contributions over the years.
A private bank has provided support worth ₹5.25 crore from its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund during the last five years. Dr. Kabra said the three types of cancers treated in the welfare project were acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, acute promylocytic leukaemia and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
