Affordable treatment at regional cancer centre in Madurai gives patients new lease of life

Daily wage laborer's cancer treatment free: Chitravalli's family saved ₹1 lakh; 140 patients treated daily at Madurai Regional Cancer Centre; 10,000 & 27,369 patients treated in 2021 & 2022 respectively; 7-yr-old boy's brain cancer treated free.

For patients like P. Chitravalli, 49, mother of four children and a daily wage labourer from Sivaganga, getting treated for cervical cancer in a private hospital would have cost her family’s lifetime savings.  

Ms. Chitravalli was treated for cancer about five months ago at the Madurai Regional Cancer Centre at Balarengapuram after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the government hospital in Sivaganga.  

Following prolonged pain in her abdomen and uterus, she was hesitant to visit a doctor fearing the social stigma and the cost for treatment. Experiencing unbearable pain and unable to continue with her masonry work, she visited a government hospital nearby in the beginning of the year. 

“We heard the news from the doctors that she was affected with cancer, which no one even from a well-off family would want to hear,” said M. Pandi, Chitravalli’s husband.  

“Treating and maintaining our fourth child, who is mentally retarded, costs us a fortune eating up all our earnings and at such a time the news of my wife affected with cancer hit me very hard,” he said.  

Doctors at the Sivaganga government hospital referred her to GRH where they were advised they would receive treatment at the oncology department.