ZenOnco is India’s first Integrative Oncology centre founded by committed caregivers Dimple Parmar and Kishan Shah after they lost their loved one to cancer. While Dimple lost her husband to cancer, Kishan saw the suffering of cancer patients first hand. They personally know the pain that cancer patients and their caregivers go through the journey of fighting against cancer. Their journey transformed their lives and gave them a purpose to serve cancer patients.

In their own journey, along with doctors and scientists, they identified a gap in today’s healthcare system that lacks integrative oncology cancer care approaches. While there are many organizations that address part of the offering, there is nobody that offers comprehensive integrative healing approaches in an affordable and accessible manner. Dimple and Kishan founded an NGO called Love Heals Cancer in March 2018, and India’s first Integrative Oncology centre ZenOnco in November 2019 to bridge this gap, along with doctors and scientists, by providing an integrative solution to heal cancer using scientific evidence-based therapies.

Research shows that cancer patients who opted for Integrative Oncology lived longer & were 33% more likely to be alive at 5 years than patients getting standard treatment alone. ZenOnco.io works along with doctors and scientists and offer evidence-based Integrative Oncology services to provide a complete healthcare solution to cancer patients. Simply put, they work along with doctors and provide emotional counselling, nutritional support and fitness workshops for holistic healing of cancer patients.

They also organize camps, workshops, and events on soft healing aspects like healing circles, cancer retreats, caregiver education, end-of-life conversation, etc. They also organize support group activities for cancer patients, their caregivers and survivors to help each other in the journey. They are also creating an open-source cancer encyclopedia in multi-lingual and multi-modal format to spread awareness on cancer.

Their aim is to improve the quality of life and extend life for cancer patients and their caregivers. Till now, Dimple and Kishan, along with their team, have touched 7,000+ lives, counselled 1,000+ patients, and organized 100+ events.

Check out the full interview here

Kishan:

Tell us a little bit about your background.

I serve cancer patients. Though I initially started my journey in the field of finance, I eventually moved to serve cancer patients after looking at the pain and suffering most cancer patients go through. I thought if I could make a difference in people’s lives by dedicating myself to it, why not. That’s how I founded the organizations ZenOnco.io and Love Heals Cancer along with my partner, Dimple Parmar.

Prior to serving cancer patients, I worked at J.P. Morgan as an investment banker, GIC (Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund) as an investment associate, and Ernst & Young as a tax advisor. By education, I’m an MBA from IIM Calcutta, Chartered Accountant, Chartered Financial Analyst, Financial Risk Manager, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst and Master of Commerce.

What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?

Each night I go to sleep, I remember the conversations during the day where many cancer patients tell us how helpful it would have been if they had counselled from us earlier. How much their health could have improved if they had known and followed the right things initially. It is this that keeps me motivated. If I can make such a positive difference to someone’s life just by sharing what is right and what should be done in cancer, how good it would be if I could share this with everyone going through this journey. I’ve discovered my purpose to serve, and this is what motivates me.

Dimple:

What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?

For me, the source of motivation is ‘People’ I now want to touch as many lives as possible through this cause. Our vision is to support, help and guide those who are battling cancer. When you hear the word ‘Cancer’, your whole life changes and nothing else matters – no money; no relation; nothing but the person who has been diagnosed with cancer. You just don’t know how much time the person has. Our goal is always to support both the patient and the caregiver. Even If we are able to save one person’s life then it gives immense satisfaction.

What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?

Thank you for asking this question. It’s a very important question as well. We all have our own set of challenges and obstacles.
So in my situation, some of the challenges when I was going through that journey were:
1) We did not have access to the right information at the right time.
2) We were not aware of integrated oncology and other treatments available and
3) It was too late in our case.
4) I just wish I had someone who could have guided us at that time.

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