Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.
~ Mother Teresa

Gauri Shankar (28) lives in Budwar village, 10 kilometers from the HBM Hospital, Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh. His wife Sudama (26) is a daily wage laborer, presently the only earning member in the family. Their 2 children, Khushboo (10) and Darshan (8), studied in the village school. Other family members include Gauri’s mother and mentally challenged brother whose infirmity started 10 years ago following a head injury from a physical fight with his uncle. The family was fairly well of farming 5 acres of land that allowed them to live in a good house and have sufficient food.

Everything changed in January 2015, when a blister on Gauri’s tongue was diagnosed as cancer after numerous visits to local practitioners and later at the nearest Regional Cancer Centre where he underwent chemotherapy. The family sold all their land to meet medical costs. When the palliative care team of HBM Hospital visited Gauri’s home, they found a completely destitute family existing on one meal a day, the children withdrawn from school and in torn clothes – a truly pitiable state brought on by the unexpected illness of the main wage earner. The team provides monthly food supplies and will open a tea shop that Gauri can run for as long as possible. They are also exploring how the children can return to school. Without such efforts, numerous rural families are pushed into a degree of poverty from which it is impossible to emerge.