A Synovial Sarcoma Survivor and an Amputee aged 25 years, Hi, I am Hunny Kapoor, a blogger just like you. Yet what differentiates all of us is the fact that how we react to situations encountered in the course of a lifetime. My life was like a normal teenager who was pursuing graduation in Maths (H) from DU. I was also an enthusiast who tried multitasking by giving home tuitions, volunteering in NGOs, and working part-time in an MNC. I was trying to make my own space and luck in Delhi, Panipat being my hometown.
Like every story has a turning point, I lost my equilibrium after about three and a half years of my journey in the capital. I was diagnosed with sarcoma cancer in my right ankle in the March of 2015. This was the time when in the age of dating a girl I was fixing appointments with doctors and my relationship with them was strongly established because of the regular visits for hours and hours. My studies got affected and my whole life and routine turned upside down. Those were the most terrible moments of my life. In the beginning, I was not able to accept the truth and kept it hidden from my family for 2 days. I felt so burdened, unable to understand why it was happening to me. And the troublesome question was “What’s next?”
In that duration of endless two days, I can’t remember how many times I tried to end the pain by ending my life. But my story in god’s book wasn’t finished yet. After several failed attempts I had to collect my guts to face this hard fact and tell my parents about the situation. It broke them. The tears in their eyes hit me so hard that I consoled myself that maybe I can end all this right now with a full stop in my life but I have no right to put my parent’s 22 years of investment at stake. There was not a single moment when I didn’t try to find a reason behind all this to blame on. Couldn’t find one!
Later on, the doctors suggested that either I can save my life or my foot. It took me a week to convince my family to choose amputation as there was no better cure. Luckily the Singapore cancer society was setting up a meeting at that point in Fortis Hospital and I consulted them with my family who consoled them that it was the best option and I finally chose to fall in the category of 3 % of the Indian population. I went under a series of surgeries in RGCI and almost everyone anticipated that I would be completely bedridden and stuck in a wheelchair for life.
After the operation, my life changed completely. My parents became more conscious of my activities. I lost all that I had gained in the past years but what I didn’t lose is my confidence and hope of turning back things to normal. After all, a hero is not made of situations rather he’s the one who molds the situations. And I am the hero of my story.
I started practicing to walk in prosthetics and maintain the pace of all the things that I always wanted to achieve just like a normal human being, provided that this time it took a little more effort. It’s been three years since the amputation and if one looks into my life now; I walk without any support, I ride, I commute on public transport, I swim, and hit the gym daily. I am pursuing my graduation (2nd year) again from IGNOU, working in a private firm in Panipat, interning as a Campus Ambassador with FireMudFM. I have also been to various open mic and storytelling platforms & mental health seminars, been to events as a motivational speaker, am a part of Human Library Delhi as a Human Book. Adding to this list, I recently scored a medal in 5Km Marathon. Since last year I got lucky enough to find a person who is aware of my whole story and the ups and downs; my Partner.
So basically cancer somewhere put a comma in my life but not a full stop. It made me a fighter and it made me realize who Hunny Kapoor is. In the end, I am who I am because of my family & friends and the people who left me during this journey. Now that I am a survivor I love to meet new people with the aim to create awareness about Cancer & make everyone realize that if a person like me, despite all the odds, can do all this then what is your excuse of not doing something…
