SILCHAR: It was 23 years ago that this year’s Magsaysay award winning oncologist Dr R Ravi Kannan left a lucrative career in Chennai to move to the Cachar Cancer Care Hospital and Research Centre (CCHRC) here with a mission to deliver affordable and accessible cancer care to the poor.

Located at Meherpur on the outskirts of Assam’s Silchar town in Barak Valley, the hospital was set up as a non-profit on a plot provided by the state government in 1996.

With cancer cases high in the Valley, primarily due to lifestyle issues, and the nearest cancer hospital 350 km away in Guwahati, citizens of Cachar district felt that there was an imperative need to set up the hospital.

“To deliver inclusive cancer care, we must have in place a package that is accessible, affordable and hassle-free,” the doctor said. He had received a call from the then director, Dr Chinmoy Choudhury, in December 2006 who invited the oncologist, then working at the Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai, to join and head the CCHRC.

“I and my wife Seetha arrived in Silchar to explore the possibility and when we saw the prevailing cancer care scenario here, I knew this was my calling,” Kannan said on his journey of providing cancer care here from 2007.

It was his wife who took the final call as she felt that they were needed here more. She continues to volunteer along with a team of over 450 colleagues.