BONE CANCER SURVIVOR | ANKIT PARMAR, 18 I WASN’T SC... http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXL...

Publication: The Crest Mumbai;Date: May 22, 2010;Section: Cover Story;Page: 11

BONE CANCER SURVIVOR | ANKIT PARMAR, 18 I WASN’T SCARED When his classmates were enjoying a
well-deserved break after slogging for their class 10 boards, Ankit Parmar was taking chemo sessions to treat the
cancer that had surfaced on his thigh while he was preparing for his exams in Baraut, a small town in Baghpat district of
Uttar Pradesh, 58 km from Delhi. A check-up at a Meerut hospital followed by a biopsy in Delhi had confirmed
malignancy of the tumour. “The doctors in Delhi put me through 12-13 cycles of chemo and 27 radiation sessions,” says
Parmar, who continued to attend school through all this. “I also had to undergo three blood transfusions as my platelet
count nose-dived because of the side effects of chemo.” After the treatment, he was fine for four months but a regular
PET scan revealed cancer in one of his lungs too. This time round he was referred to Health Care Global, a cancer
care hospital in Bangalore where he was treated with cyber knife — a radiosurgery tool used to treat carcinomas. In
this, Parmar says, he remained “unaffected”. Offering an explanation, he says, “I used to see children much younger
than me getting chemo in hospital.” The disease is now just a part of his past. “It’s my future I look at,’’ he says as he
eagerly waits for his class 12 results, and a life full of health and happiness.

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