Introduction
My cancer story took nearly twenty years to tell.
In 2007, I was diagnosed with cancer. I was sitting in my car outside the hospital when I made the first call — to my brother Bipin. I couldn’t get the words out. That moment, and the many that followed, were written down in a diary that sat in a drawer for almost two decades.
This is that story. Not just the diagnosis, the treatment, or the fear — but the people. The siblings who rallied around me. The wife who was fighting her own battle at the same time. The children who had to be told. The friends who showed up without being asked.
I wrote this series because I know there are people sitting in cars outside hospitals right now, unable to get the words out. I wrote it because cancer doesn’t just happen to one person — it happens to a whole family. And I wrote it because the people who carried me through it deserve to be remembered properly.
This is My Cancer Story. It is told in parts, because that is how life comes — one moment at a time.
I was not alone in this. That is perhaps the most important thing I can tell you. Cancer is frightening, isolating, and relentless. But around me, quietly and without fuss, people showed up. A brother who said he was coming over. A sister who made sure the food was right. A youngest sibling too far away to hold me but close enough to break my heart with a phone call. And a wife who faced her own illness with more courage than I have ever seen. These are their stories too.
If you are reading this because you or someone you love has just been given a diagnosis, I hope you find something here that helps. You are not alone. And if you are reading simply because you stumbled across it — welcome. Pull up a chair. This is a story worth telling.
For support and information, visit Macmillan Cancer Support.
The Full Story — The Lump I Ignored From the canteen where I first noticed the lump, to the day the nurses silently clapped. The complete account of my cancer story, written in 2026 from the original handwritten diary. Read the full story →
My Cancer Story — The Complete Series
Part 1 — The Diagnosis
I walked out of the consultant’s room and I knew. Nothing was confirmed, but I knew. This is where it begins.
Part 2 — Two Patients, One Family
I came home to protect my wife Harsha from my fears. Within an hour, she was in an ambulance. I followed it back to the hospital I had only just left.
Part 3 — The Treatment
Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and the question that never left: who will look after Harsha?
Part 4 — Telling the Children
A trembling hand. A trembling voice. And a group hug that lasted a long time.
Part 5 — Harsha
Who was Harsha, before illness changed everything? And the day I had to tell her. “No. Not my Dad.”
Part 6 — Bipin
The first person I called when I thought I had cancer. He said “I’m coming over.” I told him not to. But knowing he meant it was enough.
Part 7 — Ranju
The sister who never waited to be asked. Masala tea, less spice, more soup, and a love that never stopped giving.
Part 8 — Jitu
The youngest of us all. From holding hands on the way to school in Kampala, to a phone call that neither of us will ever forget.
Part 9 — Pratibha
Thousands of miles away in Canada, unable to travel. But she called. And in those days, that was enough.
Part 10 — Sumi
Our eldest sister, our second mother. One look from her was all it took. She carried her own struggles quietly, and was there for all of us — always.
A Closing Note
After nearly twenty years, the hardest part was closing it. A reflection on the people behind the people — and the wound that reopened in the telling.
