Dr Amish Vora focussed on the discrimination faced by cancer survivors through a stand-up performance by Papa CJ
Cancer may be a killer but “cancerism” is the bigger monster with myths and taboos around survivors and their subsequent alienation from the mainstream. But renowned stand-up comedian Papa CJ changed a bit of that this weekend as he enthralled 50 cancer patients and their family with his non-stop, rib-tickling humour at End Cancerism and The Happiness Sundays — an initiative to break the taboos of cancer by HOPE Oncology Care Clinic.
An hour-long comedy act from adult humour to his own travel experiences left the audience laughing and applauding while he kept the show interactive by hosting a laughter yoga workshop for patients, attending families, doctors and the staff. The pulsating morning also witnessed renowned doctors having group discussions with cancer patients and survivors who spoke about their experiences dealing with the disease and the societal perception of it.
Talking about the initiative, Papa CJ said, “It is aimed at helping cancer warriors rediscover laughter and joy during their cancer treatment.” He has also taught them laughter yoga via a live session which the clinic has promised to continue on an ongoing basis.
CJ’s do-good project traces its path to May 19 when he launched the Papa CJ Happiness Project — a not-for-profit foundation that travels to different parts of the country to entertain the children on streets and slums with a mission to get them within the folds of culture and meaningful entertainment through the media of cinema, art, sports, food, music, theatre and comedy. “I believe that my purpose is to spread happiness and not just laughs. That is why I do what I do. While I’ve done a lot of charity projects in the past, the trigger for this tour was a huge client project that I lost, resulting in a significant loss of income. When I realised that the loss of income did not bother me at all, I decided that I would do shows for people for whom that income would make a difference.”
Talking about their experiences, patients echoed that things haven’t changed in terms of people’s response towards them in spite of education and awareness drives. They said that people maintain a safe distance from cancer patients in public, even stop talking to them and visiting their house after knowing of the disease. Said Bhawna, a survivor, “Change in attitude of the people around you is not hard to notice. I was shocked when I was diagnosed with cancer but with time I started to believe that things would be fine. And that’s how I am fighting with it right now.” luckily, she didn’t have to face severe discrimination. Rather even her far-off relatives came to meet her.
However, there is a loophole in the law according to which cancer is not considered as a disability and the person who is terminated from his or her job due to it can’t do much about it. Said Manisha, whose father had prostate cancer, “My mother never used the word cancer while talking about it to someone. She hesitated from telling people, fearing discrimination from their end.” Another cancer patient Parth said that he didn’t get the job though his interview went well as the interviewer thought that he would not be able to cope with the long working hours. Another patient also told the story of a girl who was terminated from school since other parents complained that their kids might get “infected.”
Pranav, another cancer survivor, spoke about the stigma he had to face post recovery. He said, “The reintegration in the society is difficult. I performed well in my studies but its credit was given to my disease as people thought I was given sympathy marks. If I take an off from my organisation people joke about it that he might have fallen sick again (indicating he is not fit for the job). The people use my disease as an excuse to put me down while I put in my best efforts to perform well at work. They don’t want to accept us and use the disease to break us down emotionally.”
All the patients echoed a similar sentiment that they don’t want sympathy from others but wish to be treated normally like others. They want to be included in society as before and lead an ordinary life.
Talking about the initiative, Dr Amish Vora, HOPE Oncology Care Clinic, said, “We live in a world still filled with prejudices, but one type of discrimination many of us fail to acknowledge is something we refer to as ‘cancerism’. The term describes the various forms of neglect and emotional damage cancer patients receive from the outside world once they are diagnosed, so much so that they feel more like an alien than a human being.”
Rajeev Talwar, CEO, DlF limited shared, “Cancer is still today largely considered as a disease which can't be cured or conquered. Once you get to know it's curable who's scared of flu, malaria (which used to be a killer at one time. Every moment of history we had to battle with one disease now there are many diseases. Now there are so much of medicines and therefore there are more diseases. By discriminating cancer patients they are not expressing anything about you but a fear of themselves. We won't have a problem in interviewing or recruiting cancer survivors as we can provide required medical facilities.”