Hachette India

Power of Hope, The

Anshu Dogra

Dr Digpal Dharkar

In 1987, Dr Digpal Dharkar, freshly trained at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, dreamt of setting up a world-class institution for head and neck oncology that offered the latest cancer treatment, particularly to the indigent in India, where cancer is the second - and fourth-highest killer of adults across urban and rural areas.

With a majority of people in rural areas facing economic difficulties only a few were able to afford cancer treatment and often diagnosis was left until it was too late, leading to unnecessary fatalities. With grave hurdles to overcome and the odds stacked against him, Dr Dharkar summoned his deep resolve – and the commitment of like-minded medical professionals – to establish a charitable trust, the Indore Cancer Foundation (ICF), which would help make a difference in head and neck cancer care in India.

Inspiring and deeply moving, The Power of Hope is the compelling tale of Dr Dharkar's journey into the depths of human empathy and a testimony to just how much we can achieve if only we hold on to hope.

Anshu Dogra

Born in 1954, Dr Digpal Dharkar, a surgical oncologist, completed his post-graduation and training from Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, after which he received international fellowships in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. He started his surgical oncology practice in Indore in July 1988 and has performed more than 11,000 cancer surgeries, of which approximately 30 per cent have been done free of charge. The Indore Cancer Foundation and its flagship project, the Indian Institute of Head and Neck Oncology, are a result of his passion, to which he has devoted the last 32 years, travelling across villages and districts, and developing a module for district hospital-based radical cancer surgeries. He feels very much at home in the villages of India. Dr Dharkar lives in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, with his wife Yashoda, and Dindora, his stress buster, a 12-year-old pugador. He can perhaps best be described by borrowing the observation novelist John Steinbeck made on Dr Dharkar's favourite comedian, Bob Hope: 'This man drives himself and is driven.'