Let’s walk wherever we are in support of cancer patients and raise cancer awareness!

CanSupport Walk for Life was held on Sunday, 6 February 2022. This was the 15th year since CanSupport initiated this fundraising event for cancer patients in its care, also to mark World Cancer Day and to raise cancer awareness.

Keeping in mind the ongoing pandemic, the participants were encouraged to Walk, Run, Cycle, Jog or do any other physical sport or activity at wherever they were in support of cancer patients, instead of getting together at one place and to share their pictures and videos of participation with us. This enabled many people to participate from the safety and comfort of their homes, including participation from people from various other cities and countries.

Live stream on Facebook on the day of the event connected the participants from all over, where we featured pictures and videos of peoples’ participation along with talks, videos on cancer awareness.

CanSupport headquarters and other field service centres staff held their ‘walk’ in small groups in a neighbourhood park, whereas the lap of honour (walk with our Day Care patients) took place on the terrace of CanSupport headquarters building.

We thank many friends of CanSupport who sent in short videos encouraging people to register and participate in the Walk that included actor, Manisha Koirala, MLA Somnath Bharti, actor, Shashank Arora, Amit Khanna, who has held the record for the fastest man in India, Archana Singh – famous Kathak dancer, Zuleikha of The Storydancer Project, Dr G S Randhawa, the legendary Indian Athlete and Padma Shree awardee, Mr Vicky Bedi, a passionate cyclist, Dr Bhawna Sirohi from Apollo Proton Cancer Centre, Smt. Patil Pranjal Lahensingh – District Magistrate/DC, Shahdra, Manika Sharma – Director, The Shriram Schools and Vandana Chawla – principal New Era Public School. These videos were broadcast on CanSupport’s social media channels and circulated widely on WatsApp.

To engage students and younger people Colour/Dress up Sunny, the mascot activity was held, where these young people could print out the line outline drawing of Sunny, the Walk Mascot from the Walk for Life website, colour and dress it up using their own creativity, get clicked with it and send it to us for a chance to win prizes from a draw of lots at the end of the event.

The Sunday before the Walk, a curtain raiser event was held on Facebook live, where we took everyone down memory lane through a special video that captured the last 14 years of CanSupport Walk for Life event. Also, the curtain raiser included a panel discussion with three CanSupport volunteers sharing everything about this event, right from how and when the idea for this event germinated and developed over the years to become a huge event and the reasons behind its success and what attracts celebrities, diplomats, famous personalities, schools, colleges, corporates and general public to participate in such great numbers. This panel discussion further connected and warmed up people to the event. The curtain raiser also featured members of a runners group called ‘Crazy Runners’ who shared with the audience the benefits of such sport as walking and running, encouraging people to participate in this event and to run and walk on the day of the event.

On the day of the ‘Walk’, CanSupport organized three LIVE streams on Facebook on three different time slots.

The first live stream started with an energising drum performance of Djembe Circle followed by a message from Harmala Gupta, Founder – President CanSupport. After the message she officially flagged of the Walk. The session also included Lap of honour/CanSupport headquarters staff’s participation video and Dr Ravinder Mohan Director NDPS and Anil Sharma – Senior Counsellor at CanSupport sharing about CanSupport’s work.

In her message Harmala Gupta appealed to the public to register and participate in the walk to help raise funds for CanSupport to expand its circle of reaching out to those who need its free of charge palliative care service the most. She said, “Although we won’t be meeting at one place face to face, we can still be together, wherever we are, doing our own thing and dedicating that to those who need our support, our compassion and our care. Referring to the World Cancer Day theme ‘Close the care gap’, she said, “Never was this more relevant. These last few years of the pandemic have seen the gaps in cancer care that has especially increased with that community that anyway finds it difficult to access services, feeling that they were completely abandoned, cut off and the necessity of the pandemic also accentuated this feeling. It’s our attempt now to reach out to those who may have felt alone or abandoned to say that we are with you, we are dedicating this walk to closing that gap. The gap that could be the physical gap, the mental gap, an emotional gap, and say that ‘CanSupport is there’.”

Facebook live streams also featured a special performance by Zuleikha of the storydancer project, performance by the members of Rotaract club and kathak performance by Archana Singh.

Dr Reena Sharma, Director Medical and Savita Luka, Director Nursing, CanSupport shared about CanSupport’s model of home care and CanSupport volunteers, Nadira Chaturvedi and Anu Mittal shared about CanSupport Day Care activities. Social worker Rajvinder Kaur also shared with the audience about CanSupport’s third party facilitation service to cancer patients.

One of the highlights of the walk was the participation by 200 elderly from all over the world mobilised by HelpAge India which really warmed up everyone’s hearts.

At the third and final live stream, CanSupport presented a scroll of honour to its three highest grant making CSR partners. The golden scroll of honour was presented to Cipla Foundation and the silver scroll of honour went to both Optum Solutions and PNB Housing Services.

Trophies were also presented to the highest participating institute which went to HelpAge India and the highest participating educational institute trophy was given to D.A.V. Public School, Ashok Vihar.

The Walk concluded with a vote of thanks from Dr Ambika Rajvanshi, CEO CanSupport and the announcement of three lucky winners of colour/dress up sunny, the walk mascot activity.

We thank all our event partners and supporters and CanSupport volunteers who helped in organizing the walk and making it a grand success.