Finding Strength Through the Struggle

For most people diagnosed with cancer, battling this disease is probably the toughest struggle they’ll ever face. But cancer doesn’t just affect individuals. It tests families, brings people closer and often forces us to be stronger than we ever thought we could be.

“My daughter, had a lump which was operated on,” says Meena’s father, “and five months ago we found out that it was breast cancer.” A neatly dressed old man of some 70-years, he’s sat with his daughter in the patient waiting lounge at Shaukat Khanum Hospital (SKMCH) Lahore. Meena herself is shy to speak to us, but her father welcomes the opportunity to chat.

“We are from Sargodha,” he explains, “and we travel to Lahore for her chemotherapy sessions. This is the thirteenth session. It is so difficult for us to travel those three and a half hours each way.”

Chemotherapy takes a lot out of a patient, even under the best circumstances. It is a wonder how Meena –in such poor health- and her elderly father are able to make the six hour journey every time. When we ask how she’s been coping, her father says, “For my daughter, this battle is a roller-coaster of emotions; sometimes I see her cry. But then the Hospital staff and our family have been so supportive through it all.”

“Meena’s husband has been especially supportive of her,” he explains. “It is because of him, and the emotional support that he has given her, that we are able to come here for her treatment.”

Meena’s father then starts to say prayers for the doctors and hospital staff who have been there for them through this time. “The people here at Shaukt Khanum have been like a second family. They are our complete support system. If there were more hospitals like this in Pakistan, where everyone is willing to make extra efforts for the patients, the poor people of Pakistan would not have to suffer when it comes to health.”

When the tears well up in the old man’s eyes, it’s plain to see this family has been struggling to stay strong for so long. “My daughter is so young;” says the old man, “she is only thirty years old. But I am strong for her, I have to be.”

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