It’s rare when someone chooses to inspire others through their pain.
It takes a lot of courage to see your life challenge as an opportunity to ignite positivity into people’s minds.
A lot of cancer victim choose to battle in silence as they are either scared of being outcasted or fearful of being judged by society. But, a few have the courage to come forward to share their battles to inspire others.
And, one such brave soul is Sonali Bendre!
Recently, during India Today Conclave, Sonali shared her painful journey to defeat cancer.
She answered some very important questions that we feel every woman, every mother, every daughter needs to listen to prepare herself. Not just to defeat cancer but any struggles they might face.
Why she made her son an important part of her cancer-fighting journey?
When it came to breaking the news of her cancer to her son, Sonali shared:
“Ranveer was on a school trip and I could have sent him back home but I needed to see him.”
“I need to be able to talk to him. That’s the way we have brought him up and we have always been very honest with him.”
“The only thing that we were hoping was that by not lying to him, one day he will not be lying to us. That he will be honest with us and that was the example we were trying to set.”
As a mother, if you feel honesty is one of the most important traits that you would like to instill in your kids, then you could easily relate to why Sonali shared her cancer battle with her son.
Why Sonali Bendre broke the norm of battling cancer in silence?
After being diagnosed with high-grade cancer last year, Sonali shared why she felt it was important for her to share her struggle with the people on social media rather than hiding it:
“I wanted to be in charge of my narrative from the start.”
“When you are a public figure, there are so many narratives that it out there. And suddenly you lose hold of that narrative very quickly. It becomes a different thing altogether”
She further added how honesty gave her the power to fight
“As I went through the process, I realised that there are so many others that would be going to through it.”
“I wouldn’t be honest that if I said, ‘Everything was sunshine’.”
“It was not, it was painful and you do have to go through it”
And, finally what she learnt about cancer in her low-phase of life?
Sonali said, like many others, she also encountered pain and had many low points during this battle. But she learned that one can do nothing other than deal with it head-on.
“Every time I kept thinking ‘Why am I not being positive?’ and then you start feeling
‘Did I do something wrong?’. But there is pain and what can you do about it.
“You have to go through that pain. And that’s why I wanted it to be out that there is pain and it is hard.”
The point is to reduce that time to as minimum and prolong the good time for as long as you can,”
Cancer & Women In India
Do you know one woman dies of cervical cancer every 8 minutes in India?
Do you know for every 2 women newly diagnosed with breast cancer, one woman dies of it?
These shocking numbers reflect a very ugly picture of women’s health in our country. These numbers are the reason why we need cancer survivor stories much more than ever!