New Delhi: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh`s wife Gursharan Kaur along with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Sunday flagged off the sixth annual ``Walk for Life``, aimed at raising cancer awareness and issues around palliative care.
Prominent persons from public life, including MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Brinda Karat as well as senior diplomats, members of the expatriate community in Delhi and thousands of concerned citizens participated in the walk.
"CanSupport are working amazingly. We have come here because the cancer survivors can have a productive life. We are with every cancer survivor," Karat later told media.
The sixth annual Walk for Life organised by CanSupport, the pioneer in the field of palliative care that today runs the largest home-care programme for people with cancer in India, has gathered support from celebrities and personalities from public life, cinema, academics, corporates and others.
Besides the Prime Minister`s wife and the Delhi Chief Minister, Jeannie Mulford, the wife of the former US ambassador to India, have been associated with the Walk, along with students, corporate executives, cancer survivors, medical professionals, caregivers, bureaucrats, expatriates and others to express their resolve to fight a disease that threatens us all today.
Last year, CanSupport raised Rs 38 lakhs through the walk, which is expected to increase by about 50 percent this time around.
Money raised by CanSupport through the ``Walk for Life`` and other fund-raising activities through the year, is utilised to sustain its programme like telephone helpline, a day care, peer support groups and counselling services, training of paramedical professionals, counsellors and caregivers, and to operate its courses palliative care. All CanSupport services are offered completely free of charge.
ANI
