The wife of a 36-year-old colorectal cancer patient from Bulandshahr sits by his bedside, a wan smile covering up her broken self. Ever since the daily wage labourer was diagnosed, she has had to double up as a bread-earner — she took to tailoring — and a caregiver. With chemotherapies and travels to Delhi bleeding her resources, she depends on community kitchens to sustain herself. She sleeps in safe corners in the campus of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, to be close to her husband while her daughter has become a part-time domestic helper. “She feels so beaten and low that she needs immediate mental therapy herself to be her husband’s support for the cancer battle ahead,” says Prerna Gosain, psychologist at AIIMS.
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This story was produced by Vivian Health and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
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