The Adyar Cancer Institute: A Labour of Love

Three-year-old Akhila clutched the water bottle close to her chest and giggled. She rolled on the bed and giggled
some more when the flash bulb went off. She opened and closed her little palms and giggled again as she showed
off her hennaed hands and asked, "Isn't the mehndi beautiful?"

There's nothing in the world that does not make Akhila happy; be it a water bottle, a flash bulb or a little toy car…
Everything gives her joy; every new face makes her smile.

It was a different story seven months ago. Then Akhila couldn't even lift her head due to incessant fever and
vomiting. After days of investigation and several injections, the doctors told her mother Selvi her little daughter was
suffering from blood cancer and the treatment would cost her Rs 80,000 to Rs 100,000. Selvi had no idea where she
and her husband, a fruit seller, could get that much money.

The doctors advised her to go to Chennai and get Akhila treated at the Adyar Cancer Institute where poor patients
are given free treatment.

Selvi left her two other daughters with her mother and came to Chennai. After several courses of chemotherapy,
Akhila is once again her usual self; giggling and playing.

"I have been staying here with my daughter for the last seven months. I have no money to go back to my village and
return often for treatment. We are very poor. I stay here, and eat a part of the food given to my daughter. If not for
this hospital, I do not know how I would have treated my daughter," she says, with tears in her eyes.

If Selvi came from an interior village in Tamil Nadu, Kaveri and her daughter came from Andhra Pradesh. Another
mother and daughter are from Guwahati.

Every day, many such desperate people from various parts of India [ Images ] come to the Adyar Cancer Institute,
which is reputed as one of the best hospitals for cancer patients. It is also known to treat those who cannot afford the
disease's exorbitant treatment for free.

June 18, 1954

Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy, India's first woman medical graduate and a social reformer, fulfilled a long-cherished dream;
she began the Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai.

Dr Reddy had lost her young sister to cancer in 1923. Her sister was being treated at India's only specialised cancer
hospital, located in Patna, Bihar. It set her thinking. She could afford to take her sister to Patna. What about the
poor?

So Dr Reddy sent her only son, S Krishnamurthy, to the United States, Switzerland [ Images ] and the UK to train in
cancer treatment. When he returned, the Adyar Cancer Institute was formed with the objective of providing the best
cancer treatment to the poor.

They were joined by Dr V Shanta. As a house surgeon in 1950, she had seen Dr Krishnamurthy work in the cancer
unit of the government-run General Hospital. She had heard him talk to large audiences about the plight of poor
cancer patients. "It was very moving. I felt I should participate in their effort," she says.

The Institute began with two doctors, Krishnamurthy and Shanta, a single building with minimal diagnostic and
therapeutic facilities and a cluster of 12 huts to house the patients. The only cancer hospital in south India, it was
established with public donations as a voluntary, charitable, non-profit institution.
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Sept.2010
"It was a very difficult journey. Finances were hard to come by and daily existence was a struggle. It was a frustrating
and painful period because people did not understand us. The first thing people asked me those days was, 'Where
were you trained?' My reply, 'Here in India, in Madras,' did not make many happy!" Dr Shanta, who took over as the
Institute's director and chairperson when Dr Krishnamurthy retired in 1979, recalls.

Another person who has been with the Institute since the beginning is Matron Janaki. As she immersed herself in her
work, she even "forgot to marry." "I got attached to the hospital, the patients and my work. My life is this hospital
because I spend 24 hours a day, 365 days a year here. Even though I am 60, I continue to work here as I have no
other home.

Dr Shanta says the Institute grew because of "international philanthropy," especially from Christian organisations.
Now, aid is hard to come by because 'they feel India has developed.'

The Institute's first break came on Christmas eve, 1956, when Atomic Energy, Canada [ Images ], gifted a Cobalt-60
Teletherapy unit (radiation therapy machine); it was the first such unit in Asia.

Several firsts

The Institute has several other firsts to its credit. They include:

• A department of Nuclear Medical Oncology in 1956;

After 49 years...

The Institute has a hospital, a research centre, a centre of preventive oncology, and a College of Oncology
Sciences (a postgraduate college that conducts super-speciality courses in surgical oncology and medical
oncology).

Its centre for preventive oncology has been working in conjunction with non-government organisations and
government hospitals to conduct cancer screening camps and PAP smear tests at the district level and in various
parts of the city.

The Institute's hereditary cancer clinic, the first in the country, is studying the genetic factors related to the disease.

The Tobacco Cessation Clinic has been helping people to fight various forms of tobacco consumption, which is the
most common cause for cancer.

Annually, more than 95,000 to 100,000 patients from all parts of India visit the hospital; hardly 0.5 per cent of whom
are covered by health insurance. In fact, only 15 to 20 per cent of the population can afford treatment at private
hospitals; the rest have to depend on hospitals like the Adyar Cancer Institute or government hospitals where
treatment is either free or subsidised.

Last year alone, the Institute -- which has 428 beds of which 297 are free -- saw nearly one lakh (100,000) patients,
of which 60 per cent were given for free treatment. The number of patients coming to the hospital has been
increasing each year. Generally, two-thirds of them get free or subsidised treatment.
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"In the present day environment of corporate medicare, we are trying to see whether a charitable, non-profit, non-
government organisation can continue to provide the state-of-the-art care irrespective of the patient's economic or
social status. That is why we need everyone's support," Dr Shanta said.

Dr Ravi Kannan, professor and head, surgical oncology was frank, "Because we treat poor people, there is a feeling
among the rich that we are not up to the mark, which is sad. Our expertise and infrastructure are the best in Asia.
Many people find it infradig to come and get treated along with poor patients. So, to run a charitable hospital which
offers state-of-the-art treatment is an uphill task."

Dr Shanta, who tried to lead by example, says, "If our doctors worked in a corporate set-up, they would probably earn
three to four times the salary they are drawing here. In fact, we only manage to retain a fraction of the people we
train here. It is a great loss. Our alumni are all over the world and all over India, but very few stick here because we
cannot offer fat salaries. It is certainly disheartening when you see them go, but then they are spreading the
message of the Institute elsewhere."

Dr Kannan added, "Those who stay behind are committed to the cause."

At present, the Institute is staffed by 150 medical and non-medical doctors, 134 nurses and 70 technicians. And it
remains in need of financial aid.

Friends of the Cancer Institute

The Institute's annual budget, excluding research and new equipment, is Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million). This
amount goes exclusively towards providing treatment and maintaining the hospital and its equipment.

A year ago, a group of 10 professionals from different walks of life, who had experienced the way the Institute
functions, formed the 'Friends of the Cancer Institute.' The group meets every Monday evening -- Dr Kannan makes
it a point to attend these meetings -- to chalk out a program for the week; each member donates at least an hour a
day for work connected with the Institute.

Lakshmi, a 'friend,' says, "We found that, though the hospital is world class, only the poor came here. This
phenomenon has affected the Institute financially. We felt they are low-key and have never worked at selling their
image. So we decided to build its image as a top class hospital that is doing an excellent job in fighting cancer."

That was how Iruvathu varai iruvathu (20 till 20), an innovative way of raising money, was born. Advertising agency
Lintas pitched in with their expertise. 'Friends of the Cancer Institute' plan to collect Rs 20 crore by selling coupons
worth Rs 20. "Chennai has a population of one crore [10 million]. In one year, we plan to collect Rs 20 crore by
selling Rs 20 coupons," Lakshmi said.

Dr Kannan admitted the response to media reports on actor Kamal Haasan launching the Rs 20 coupons was
unprecedented.

"Our idea was to involve the community in our endeavour. The response has been quite gratifying," says a pleased
Dr Kannan.

For more information, please contact The Adyar Cancer Institute, Gandhi Nagar, Adyar, Chennai -- 600 020, Tamil
Nadu, India.
www.cancerinstitutewia.org

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