Access Life helps cancer patients

Once, the Buddha and Ananda Maha Thera visited a monastery, where a monk was suffering from a contagious disease. The monk lay in a mess with no one looking after him. The Buddha himself washed the sick monk and placed him on a new bed. Afterwards, He admonished the other monks, “Monks, you have no either mother or father to look after you. If you do not look after each other who will look after you?” “Whoever serves the sick suffering, serves me.”

The most worthwhile thing on this earth is to try to put HAPPINESS into the lives of others, the miserable!

Access Life is a non-profit organization, committed towards working with children diagnosed with cancer or undergoing cancer treatment and making a difference in their lives. Children coming from distant areas in India, diagnosed with cancer at the Tata Memorial Hospital are provided lodging at Access Life.

Access Life has launched a Patient Care Centre in Chembur, Mumbai, and provides a loving and temporary home for the parent or caretaker and the child undergoing treatment for cancer.
The Tata Memorial Center is the national comprehensive cancer center for the prevention, treatment, education and research in cancer and is recognized as one of the leading and prestigious cancer centers in this part of the world.

Every year, 43,000 new patients visit the clinics from all over India and neighboring countries. Nearly 60 percent of these cancer patients receive primary care at the Hospital of which over 70 percent are treated almost free of any charges. Over 1000 patients attend the OPD daily for medical advice, comprehensive care or for follow-up treatment.

Nearly 6,300 major operations are performed annually, and 6,000 patients treated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy annually in multi-disciplinary programs, delivering established treatments. At the TMH, evidence-based-medicine is the keystone of our endeavour. Apart from the patient-care and service, clinical research programs and randomized trials contribute increasingly to improved delivery of care and highest standards of work ethics.

Surgery remains the vital form of treatment along with radiation therapy and chemotherapy. The strategies for early diagnosis, treatment management, rehabilitation, pain relief and terminal care have been established in a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach for a total cancer care programme.

This achievement has been possible due to the far-sighted and total support of the Department of Atomic Energy, responsible for managing this Institution since 1962.

The mission of Access Life is to offer a home-like environment for these families and try to improve the quality of life of these children by providing practical support services, educational resources and recreations programs. Accommodation to these families and children undergoing cancer treatment are free of charge. Their support includes of nutritional food, counseling and transportation services to the hospital, activities such as 'art-based therapy' are also offered to keep them engaged and occupied during their time away from the hospital.

Access Life Assistance Foundation provides a loving and temporary home for the parent or caretaker and the child undergoing the treatment for cancer. Our mission is to offer a home-like environment for these families and we also try to improve the quality of life of these children by providing practical support services, educational resources and recreational programs.

The center currently has a capacity to house eight patient families. In another two years, with the support from friends and donors, Access Life plans to increase its capacity to a hundred families. Therefore, the Access Life requires financial support to maintain the current expenses of currently-maintained units (where families are staying) and to extend the capacity of units for more kids.

Parents of these children, diagnosed with cancer, arrive from small, faraway towns. Bewildered and anxious, desperately seeking the promises of a miraculous cure that only this big city can provide. Aid associations and hospitals extend them medical assistance. But they have nowhere to stay and many end up on the footpath, or paying dearly for unhygienic accommodation or on the road.

Continuation of existence becomes a dream for those deprive hygiene, especially those who have depressed minds and with vulnerable immune systems.
“Our goal is to create a 'HOME AWAY FROM HOME' for these children, by providing them with the physical and emotional necessities that will give them a better chance of beating cancer.” said, Girish Nair, Founder and Chairman of Access Life.

Access Life Assistance Foundation, 6, Jolly Land CHS, Ghatla Village Road, Chembur (EAST), Mumbai 400071, Maharashtra, India, Phone:  + 91 22 2521 2511, https://www.accesslife.org;https://www.facebook.com/AccessLifeIndia;  https://www.twitter.com/AccessLifeIndia; https://www.instagram.com/AccessLifeIndia “We understand the financial pressure cancer puts on some families so we provide them dignified accommodation at no cost while their child receives the treatment. In a country where care for the needy has long been accepted as dismal, Access Life is working to not only fill in a large unmet need, but also to fundamentally change this mind-set.”, said, Ankeet Dave, Executive Director,  Access Life.

“The kind of seed sown will produce that kind of fruit. Those who do good will reap good results. Those who do evil will reap evil results. If you carefully plant a good seed, you will joyfully gather good fruit,” Dhammapada.

We receive exactly what we earn, whether it is good or bad. We are the way we are now due to the things we have done in the past. Our thoughts and actions determine the kind of life we can have. If we do good things, in the future good things will happen to us. If we do bad things, in the future bad things will happen to us. Every moment we create new results by what we say, do and think. If we clearly understand this philosophy with wisdom, we do not need to fear about the results of what we do. It becomes our friend. It teaches us to create a bright future for our own happiness.