Page 66 - Essentia Vol 5 Issue 1

VOL V | ISSUE I | 5 AUGUST 2026 VOL V | ISSUE I | 5 AUGUST 2026
A BIANNUAL NEWSLETTER OF ASSAM CANCER CARE FOUNDATION A BIANNUAL NEWSLETTER OF ASSAM CANCER CARE FOUNDATION
Rewriting the Story of

Cancer Care

in Assam and the Northeast

Affordable cancer care,
brought closer to home, means Upasana Patowary
Executive Assistant
a mother in Jorhat does not have Assam Cancer Care Foundation

to choose between treatment
and her children. It means a
railway employee in Tinsukia does As cancer volumes in the Northeast continued to
rise, outreach teams went into communities to
not spend his savings on a Delhi identify patients before they reached hospitals.
guesthouse. ACCF has since run large-scale screening,
awareness and prevention programmes.
Screening kiosks were opened at district hospitals
or generations, many families in the Northeast and medical colleges, while camps moved
learned to leave home for cancer care. A through rural blocks. Suspected cases were
Fdiagnosis often meant travelling to a distant guided to hospitals. A Digital Nerve Centre (DiNC)
metro, leaving behind work, children, savings in Guwahati began responding to patient enquiries
and familiar support systems. The cost was not through the toll-free number 18003454325.
limited to hospital bills. It included hotel stays, lost
wages, long follow-ups and the emotional strain of Millions have been screened for oral, breast and
keeping families apart. cervical cancers through Mission 1 Crore. Home-
With ACCF, that story is beginning to change.
Through trusted, patient-centred and quality
care, patients are learning to stay closer to home.
Families now find within the region what they
once sought in metros: standardised treatment
protocols, advanced diagnostics and equipment,
multidisciplinary expertise, insurer-recognised
billing and a navigation team that helps patients
move through care without feeling lost.

Beyond treatment
ACCF works on a simple principle: cancer care
should not end with treatment. Patients need a
continuum of care - from diagnosis after screening
to treatment, follow-up, end-of-life support
through the Community Outreach Programme,
survivorship support through Sahयोग, and healing
beyond the hospital.

66 The first step towards healing is replacing silence with understanding. 67