LUDHIANA: The 60-year-old NRI from England, Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal, is fighting against cancer since more than 12 years and it is his mission to eradicate this deadly disease from Punjab which has turned into a cancer capital. Hailing from a small town, Moga Dhaliwal had migrated to England at the age of 27 and got settled there as a businessman. After two cancer deaths in his family, he took an early retirement from his business just to be able to pay attention to his mission.
He now works as a global brand ambassador of World Cancer Care Society. While talking about this deadly disease, Dhaliwal said the situation is so chronic that there was a need for the government to put all efforts towards this direction because many people are dying with various types of cancer these days. He said in Punjab, 43 people are dying daily out of which 36 are females. He shared that women do not come out for their tests at early stage and this is the reason they come to know about the same when the disease has advanced and reached the last stage. “Females are suffering from breast and cervix cancer very badly,” he added.
Regarding his mission, he said, “When I had started working with cancer research institute of England I was not aware I will come so far. My mother before death had requested me to do something in this direction so that no other son should lose his mother due to cancer.” He shared when he was chosen as the brand ambassador of Cancer Care Society, he started focusing on villages initially owing to the less availability of medical facilities there. He said they have covered 9,000 villages by organising more than 1,700 camps since 2014 and he has aimed to cover all 12,783 villages by the end of this year.
Regarding his upcoming projects, Dhaliwal said by the next year two cancer research centres will start in
Jalandhar and
Jagraon where cancer patients will be screened free of cost and they will be given advice for treatment as well. He said in these centres, he will not keep any fee for tests and advice but there will be a donation box for people who want to become part of this drive against cancer.
Making an appeal to people Dhaliwal said instead of spending on constructing religious places, people should donate their money for treatment of cancer patients. He asked people to adopt cancer patients and only then they can serve the mankind. He said they are doing tests for breast, cervix, oral, prostate cancer along with ECG, diabetes and high blood pressure. Dhaliwal said there are nine mobile vans with organization for check-up and test of patients on road.
He claimed that in the next two years, he will detect all cancer cases in Punjab and will help them in getting treated. He questioned the government why is it not sensing the seriousness of the situation. “Early detection is the only cure to cancer,” he added.
Dhaliwal was always interested in service to mankind and he took his first step by establishing Sant Singh Dhaliwal Trust in 1991 in the name of his father to raise voice against female foeticide, adolescent marriage of girls and lack of educational resources for the poor.
