Bollywood turns out to celebrate ‘Hope 2015’ with cancer-affected kids!

Tata Memorial Hospital, India’s premier cancer treatment, education and research center, recently celebrated ‘Hope 2015’, India’s biggest event by children who are battling or who have survived cancer. And a few Bollywood biggies turned out to help the children celebrate!

Neil Nitin Mukesh, Johnny Lever, Amol Gupte, and Bosco & Caesar were among the Bollywood stars who visited Tata Memorial Hospital to entertain the kids as they celebrated this year’s theme: Nritya, the art of expressions. For the last month, children battling cancer at TMH have been attending various workshops on art, crafts, drawing & painting, music and dance. The kids have put together some beautiful performances and showcased their wonderful talent to all the children, parents, doctors, social workers, nurses and supporters present at the event.

Says Dr. Sripad Banavali, Head of the Department of Medical Oncology,

“Childhood cancers are highly curable, provided they are diagnosed early and treated properly. However the treatment is very complex and expensive. It takes an entire ‘village’ to treat a child with cancer in addition to finances! At Tata Memorial Hospital, through the ImPaCCT Foundation we provide holistic care to these children in the form of financial help, accommodation, nutrition, education, blood and platelets, entertainment, and much more. Our annual event ‘HOPE’ is just one among many such initiatives at Tata that aims at providing holistic care to children. All this has helped us to reach closer to our ultimate goal that ‘Every child with cancer taking treatment at TMH deserves the best chance at cure.'”

The ImPaCCT Foundation, which sponsors the ‘Hope’ event, is a holistic socio-economic and psychological support system developed by the Pediatric Division of TMH. ImPaCCT stands for “Improving Pediatric Cancer Care and Treatment”. Through a holistic approach, the foundation helps children with cancer taking treatment at TMH by providing means to cope with all their needs including emergency funds on day one of registration, seed money to initiate treatment, nutritional support, and accommodation, educational and social support. ‘Hope’, an event which began in 2006, is a celebration aimed to spread the message that “Cancer is Curable.”

Out of the 2,000 child cancer patients that register at TMH every year, nearly 70% of the child patients at Tata are treated almost free of charge with the help of sponsors and donors.