This is the story of my father, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of 54 years. He had an ulcer in the intestine which converted into cancer and spread to the liver, which is called liver metastasis and ulcerative colitis. It was in the last stage when we found out, and before that he had no symptoms.

He was leading a normal life and was running a small-time business. He was diagnosed on 22nd April 2018 with cancer like developments in his body, but it was not confirmed as the tests were still to be conducted. We received the reports confirming cancer a week later and as we live in Goa we did not have enough facilities to handle the same.

I was working with Reliance in Mumbai, and as my father is an ex-Navy, we consulted some doctors in the Naval Hospital in Colaba and H.M. Hospital. We admitted him to the Naval hospital, but the process was going very slowly, so we shifted him to H.M. Hospital, where he was given Chimiothérapie.

His body was consumed with cancer and organs started failing. He could not cope up with the chemotherapy, and he was soon shifted to the ICU, where after four to five days he passed away. In a journey of less than one and a half months, everything was over, and we had no time to cope up with it. As I am the only son, he wanted to see me married, so we just went to a temple and did all rituals and formalities for his happiness.

C'est le voyage qui restera à jamais dans mon cœur; une bataille que nous avons menée mais perdue avec le cancer. Nous avons fait tout ce qu'il fallait pour le voir passer le sourire aux lèvres. Tous les membres de la famille et certains de mes collègues se battaient pour cela, mais nous ne pouvions pas vaincre le cancer.

Quand vous demandez si nous avons essayé une autre méthode de chimiothérapie, je répondrais non car les médecins avaient dit que comme c'est le dernier stade du cancer, rien d'alternatif ne fonctionnerait. Le délai que nous avions était très court. Son corps n'a même pas pu supporter la séance de chimio qui lui a été donnée. Son cancer s'était également propagé dans son intestin, son foie et son sang.

We faced no problems from the doctors or the hospital as our family doctor, Dr.Tingua, had already given us a rough picture of what to expect. He also recommended doctors in Mumbai, as did my colleagues. As the condition was grave, we could not do anything. The doctors were very co-operative and good at guiding. It was a pre-death scenario, as we had no time to do anything. We went ahead with whatever was possible, but we could not do much.

Mon père était dans Pain et je ne pouvais pas y faire grand-chose. Il a accepté qu'il devait aller jusqu'au bout et que nous devions essayer. C'était un combattant acharné, et nous en sommes fiers.

I would just like to say that life is minimal. Give it your best fight, no matter which stage you are in. Life is something that never ends. Cancer is not a full stop, as a sentence always starts after a full stop. So find your sentence and live life.

J'ai rencontré beaucoup de patients atteints de cancer quand je suis allé à l'hôpital avec mon père. J'ai rencontré un garçon de deux ans qui avait un cancer et subissait sa septième ou huitième séance de chimio, et il souriait toujours et jouait avec son jouet. Donc, c'est l'attitude que vous avez qui compte et l'environnement que vous créez autour d'eux - un environnement positif.

My father's journey changed many things in my life. Many new things have been incorporated into my life: regular exercise, a change in the kind of meal being eaten, lifestyle changes, the way we make decisions in life, financial planning, and many more such changes. We can only be prepared, as cancer is a lifestyle disease that cannot be predicted.