By Prateek Dadheech:
We all have aspirations when we are kids. Aspirations that make us promise ourselves that we would, one day, achieve them and live the life we always wanted to. A wise man once said that if you kill a dream, you kill a person.
Every child has a dream to be something when he/she is growing up. Sometimes their dreams come true and sometimes they don’t. But you cannot take away the right to dream from anyone, especially a kid.
But there are some among them whose thoughts are limited to just surviving. Every year, 50,000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer in India. The actual figure might be even higher than this. These children have dreams too. But cancer, at such an early age, can take it all away from them and their families.
So, in order to help such families to get their child’s life back on track, Yuvraj Singh’s foundation YouWeCan in association with Desired Wings has started an initiative called ‘Together We Can’.
The reason I got involved with this initiative is because I, too, lost my 11-year-old niece to blood cancer a few years back. She was like any other mischievous kid and I remember that she wanted to watch cartoons all the time. When I first got the news about her demise, I was in complete shock and saw my family break down in tears. We all had hoped that she would recover in some time but God had other plans. So, I decided to contribute towards this campaign in whichever way I can and honour her memory.
This initiative will finance five years of education for 100 valiant children who prevailed over cancer but cannot afford to attend school since all their parents’ savings were spent on their treatment.
This project wants the kids to make a comeback just like Yuvraj did after defeating cancer. With a small or big contribution from the people, this venture will be able to help those 100 children to live a normal life again. It won’t be easy for the children to forget the pain that they have gone through. But it will make their future less painful.
Kartik Bhardwaj, one of the nominated children, was diagnosed with blood cancer at the tender age of eight. He miraculously recovered from cancer in a year but he had to drop out of his school since he had to go through with the treatment. His father said, “It felt really bad when we had to stop him from eating fast food and ice creams due to his medications. But he acted maturely and always listened to us. He gave us the strength we never had. It would mean the world to us if he started going to a good school as soon as possible.”
But it has been very pleasing to see that a lot of students from universities all over the nation have helped in spreading the message and helping the initiative to raise the required funds. So, consider this a request and help create a bright future for the children who have defied death.
These brave souls have managed to fight back this lethal disease with their strong will to live. Now, all they need is a fresh start and you can help them in getting one.