16-yr-old, suffering from rare blood cancer, battles for life

After she failed to get treatment at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital for her rare blood cancer, the 16-year-old daughter of a security guard has now turned to AIIMS and is need for a bone marrow transplant.

Kanchan Dhyani, who suffers from Relapsed Acute Myeloid Leukemia, is in need of a donor and financial help for her operation. Belonging to an economically backward family, Kanchan's father Prabhu Dayal is the lone bread-winner in his family of six and has already exhausted all his savings on her treatment.

"We were given an estimate of Rs 8,00,000 on December 24, which we are unable to bear," said Meenakshi Dhyani, Kanchan's elder sister.

Kanchan began having pain in her joints last month and her haemoglobin level began falling. Later, she was taken to a polyclinic, where preliminary diagnosis revealed the disease.

Doctors at AIIMS say the chances of Kanchan being cured are 20-50 percent and treatment would take at least two years.

"Kanchan had to undergo blood transfusion and her body needs more transfusions in the coming days because her bone marrow is producing too many immature white blood cells/Leukemia cells," said the doctors.

Moreover, "she is scheduled for many rounds of treatment program in the next few days in which she needs minimum 10 units of B positive blood while each cycle of chemotherapy costs Rs 1,00,000," doctors said.

Kanchan has been discharged from the hospital and given date for chemotherapy on February 23.