Surviving a deadly disease is a miracle. Cancer, which is one of the main causes of death has unfortunately raised its head in Sri Lanka as well. While many patients are queuing up at cancer wards to get their daily dose of medication and check-ups, many others are dying as they cannot afford treatments. In an effort to put an end to this tragedy many programmes were launched to give a hand to these patients.
One such project was Trail, an initiative put forth by two individuals, Nathan Sivagananathan and Sarinda Unamboowe in an effort to bring communities together and drive the nation’s fight against cancer. Trail is a platform that brings like-minded people including cancer patients, cancer survivors, donors and other interested parties together.
Dhulanie Mendis, a proud survivor of cancer has been involved in the ‘Women’s Pride’ programme initiated by her daughter, which aims at providing breast prosthetics to women cancer survivors as well as headscarves for those who have lost their hair to chemotherapy.
The main objective is to equip these patients with affordable and comfortable prosthetics which they could wear. In addition to this programme, ‘Walking Tall’ a project initiated by her son, provide prosthetics to children who have lost their limbs to cancer.
Being a cancer patient herself, Dhulanie finds it quite a privilege to be an inspiration and a role model for less fortunate individuals who are cancer patients. She has reached out to many people who are in need of prosthetics and have made arrangements with donors to sponsor for these individuals. She wishes to be a conduit between the donor and the patient, thereby ensuring that the entire process is well taken care of.