Radio Choklate team brings cheers to cancer patients

OST Bureau

Cuttack, Sep 23: 

To share the grief and trauma of the cancer afflicted patients and bring them some cheer, a team from Radio Choklate, the popular FM radio station, met them at the Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre here on Sunday on the occasion of International Rose Day.

The team, led by Tanaya Patnaik, director Radio Choklate, met the patients at the Centre and presented each of them a yellow rose while sharing their feelings.

The International Rose Day is observed throughout the world since 1994 in memory of Melinda Rose Hathaway,a 12-year-old Canadian girl who was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer named Askin’s Tumor in February, 1994 .

Though the doctors had predicted she would die in one or two weeks’ time, the brave girl did not give up. A few weeks after the initial diagnosis, Melinda spent all of her time counselling other cancer patients. In order to reach out to the people all around the world, she created a unique website wherein she inspired all cancer patients to muster the will to live and battle the disease.

Melinda fought cancer for over three years and began to write poems which were posted  on her website a few days before she breathed her last on September 16, 1996.

Melinda’s  only wish was that her family should continue to keep her website up and running .