Shane Zahra was 29 years old and was diagnosed with cancer in 2017. She was advised by her doctor in Moradabad to move to Delhi, for treatment. She came to AIIMS Delhi in 2018, and it was found that the cancer had spread to the tibia.

Shane, along with her husband and children took up a rented accommodation in Noida. Her husband was her primary caregiver and their three school going children included two daughters and a son. Shane’s husband is an air conditioner mechanic who was lucky to get a job at an AC repair workshop, on moving to Delhi.

In 2019, Shane came across CanSupport’s Central Network Office (CNO) at AIIMS where she got to know about CanSupport and its services for patients like her. Shane immediately called our telephone helpline.

The palliative care team visited Shane for the first time in March 2019 to assess her condition and to get to know the family. Thereafter, the team started visiting her regularly.

Shane had to undergo a surgery to place an artificial bone in her leg. Even though a lot of time had passed since the surgery, her wound wasn’t healing. She had shared this concern with the doctor many a times but it was not taken seriously.

The home care team from CanSupport attended to her wound and symptoms as much as possible, at home. In 2020, due to the lockdown, the hospital refused to register anyone at their outpatient department (OPD) and provide any treatment. Hence, Shane developed new symptoms which were very painful for her.

With time, the relationship between Shane, her husband and the palliative care team became very warm and comfortable and the couple started opening up and sharing their concerns.

During one of their visits, the team inquired if the couple would like to continue staying in Delhi or would want to go back to their hometown. Shane’s husband said that since now he had a job and an opportunity to work in Delhi, they would prefer to stay here. The team from CanSupport also helped the couple by connecting them to another home care patient’s son, who is a property dealer. With his help, Shane and her husband were able to buy a small house in Delhi and the EMI for the loan turned out to be the same as the house rent, they were paying.

Shane and her husband were delighted to have their own house in Delhi and could now dream of giving their children a good education. The CanSupport team also supported the family by counselling the children regularly and teaching them the value of time and money. It encouraged them to help their parents with household chores since Shane had become bedridden. The wound on her leg was not healing. Rather, the infection was getting worse by the day. Soon Shane developed an unbearable pain in her stomach. On visiting the hospital, she was diagnosed with metastatic in her stomach. This news completely broke her spirits. The hospital was not ready to admit her. Shane was devastated and became worried about her future, family and finances.

During each visit, the palliative care team from CanSupport counselled and encouraged the family to continue fighting the illness courageously. The team also prepared them to share the prognosis and continued counselling till they accepted the inevitable. Her condition was deteriorating but the team continued to provide medication and ration support to the family, from time to time.

Shane also confided to the counsellor that she was very worried about the wellbeing of her children, after she was gone. The team advised her to invite her widowed sister-in-law to live with the family as this arrangement may work out both for her sister-in-law and her children.

Shane followed suit and invited her sister-in-law to live with them. To see her children being taken care of by someone gave her peace of mind. Shane wanted to die in her native village and meet all her friends and relatives before she died. The team encouraged her husband to fulfil her last wish. A few days after reaching her village, Shane passed away peacefully, surrounded by relatives and friends. Shane and her husband were grateful for the supportive care they got from the CanSupport team.