Just six months after she was born, doctors told Nisha Jadhav’s parents about her heartbreaking condition – she suffered from Thalassemia. For a poor family from Mumbai, with the father being the sole breadwinner and earning just Rs. 6,000 every month as a painter, the expensive blood-borne ailment affecting their 10-year-old child was a life-changer.
Life was never easy for Nisha and her parents, but the illness has boxed them into a corner and they do not have the strength to fight it out all alone. They need your help.
“I have to take Nisha for her blood transfusions every 15 days, and that costs me a total of Rs. 1,000 per session. At times, she needs a transfusion within 8 days if her RBC count drops drastically. Being the sole breadwinner, I have to take care of other expenses like food, electricity and water bill. My daughter has received a total of 240 blood transfusions and I’ve spent more than Rs. 2.4 lakhs on this, however, I need a permanent solution to get her out of this misery. Doctors have said that a bone marrow transplant will cure Nisha, however, I’m unable to afford this life-saving amount that costs Rs 10 lakh,” says Gajanan Yadav, Nisha’s father.
For Nisha, every day in her life is a huge battle. Walking small distances from home changes the expression of her face, says her father. “We live at IIT Market in Powai and our home is located uphill because of which my daughter faces difficulty to go anywhere. She discontinued her schooling as she began to face difficulty in her daily commute, especially while climbing uphill towards home. I only see her tired and helpless,” he says.
With your help in the form of donations, Nisha can win this battle against Thalassemia. Donate here.
Nisha has never lived a normal life. She has to make multiple visits to the hospital, needs painful injections in her stomach and has had to sacrifice her schooling. “Badminton and cycling matter the world to her, but we cannot allow her to play beyond half an hour as it would make her legs ache. I hate to cut-short my child’s playtime,” Gajanan laments.
She cannot even have the food she loves. “She loves eating vada pav, biryani and Manchurian, but she cannot eat them more than three times in a month,” he says.
What is even more difficult for the parents is answering her innocent questions. “She often asks, ‘Why am I different from others, baba?’ Even though we both know the answer to this, I divert her attention with a game of carrom on my mobile phone that she loves,” her father says.
“She also asks me when she will get cured. But I never have answers to these questions as I do not have that life-saving Rs. 10 lakh,” he says.
You can help Gajanan by donating here.
“I’m tired of eating these medicines dad, please make it stop,” Nisha says. But Gajanan is a helpless father who witnesses her frustrations build-up every single day. His child hoped to spend her 10th birthday with her friends, however she celebrated it in the hospital surrounded by doctors and nurses.
Nisha’s brother has been very emotional and understanding about his sister. He does his bit by giving his phone to his sister so that she doesn’t feel bored. After seeing her struggle while walking to school, he said, “I do not want Nisha to go to school. Let her be home.” And he started to cry.
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