Fifty-three-year-old Neeta D’Souza (name changed), in the last stage of bone cancer, was resigned to her fate when a few ayurvedic medicines which she thought had helped her feel better ran out of stock after the countrywide lockdown was declared.
The medicine had to be procured from a far-off place in Palakkad district of Kerala and not just across the State boundary. None could help her since her husband is working abroad and her two children are in Bengaluru. The possibilities of travelling all the way, crossing the border, seemed impossible to her in the present condition.
But help came in the form of a few activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and the Fire and Emergency Services of Kerala and Karnataka.
Her relative Jackson Vas informed her plight to his neighbour and SFI office-bearer Madhuri Bolar, who got in touch with her comrades in Kerala and soon they arranged for the medicines by contacting Sree Narayana Pharmaceuticals at Ottapalam in Palakkad district. Activists there took the help of Kerala Fire and Rescue Services, who dropped off the consignment at Talapady on the Karnataka-Kerala border on Wednesday. Ms. D’Souza received the consignment on Thursday through Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services personnel.
Mr. Vas recalled that Ms. D’Souza, a resident of Kumpala on the outskirts of Mangaluru, was diagnosed to be in the final stage of bone cancer a couple of years ago and doctors did not give any assurance to her. When some of her acquaintances informed her about availability of ayurvedic medicines at Ottapalam, she saw no harm in giving it a try.
Since it appeared to give her relief, she was keen to continue with it, said Mr. Vas. Now, thanks to the volunteers, she can do so lockdown notwithstanding.
