The winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service for this year is Dr. V. Shantha, executive chairperson of the Cancer Institute (CI) in Adyar, Chennai. The award presented to her by the Magsaysay Foundation on August 3, saluted her “untiring leadership of the Cancer Institute (Women’s Indian Association), a centre of excellence and compassion for the study and treatment of cancer”. This good news has spread joy and excitement among the CI hospital staff and their dynamic leader Dr. Shantha, for whom the individual and the institution has always been one homogeneous entity. “The award is international acknowledgement of the work the entire team at this institute has been doing all these years. It has given the institute considerable prestige and a much-needed image boost. I hope it will translate into greater support in terms of funds and committed researchers,” says the 78-year-old Shantha, who signed up with Cancer Institute before the first brick was laid at the Adyar centre. An alumna of Madras Medical College, Shantha graduated in 1949, acquired a diploma in gynaecology and obstetrics in 1952 and completed her Masters in medicine (MD) in 1955. Immediately afterwards, she joined the then fledgling Cancer Institute established in 1955 as an autonomous, charitable comprehensive cancer care centre, as its first resident medical officer. Since then she has laboured relentlessly with Dr. Krishnamurti (son of Cancer Institute founder Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy) to make cancer care affordable and available to everyone irrespective of social standing or economic status. Simultaneously the institute has grown from a cottage hospital of 12 beds in 1955, to a massive 428-bed hospital inclusive of 297 general beds made available to patients treated free of charge. “There has been phenomenal medical advancement in cancer care and treatment in the past half century and this institute was the first in India to introduce oncology and a multi-disciplinary approach to cancer treatment,” says Shantha who was also responsible for the recognition and practice of medical oncology as a speciality and established a separate medical oncology division at the Cancer Institute in 1970. In 1984, the Dr. Muthulakshmi College of Oncological Sciences which was the first to offer the super speciality course in surgical and medical oncology in India, was established within the institute. Today it trains three students in each speciality. Shantha also helped with the promotion of the first Hospital Tumour Registry and the first pediatric oncology unit in the country in 1960. Half a century later, Shantha shows no signs of slowing down. To this day this indefatigable oncologist examines patients three days a week; operates on one day and utilises the rest of her time reading, writing, lecturing, doing PR work, fund raising and creating awareness about common cancers. “A cancer patient needs a lot of care and compassion and a committed doctor who empathises with her patients,” says Shantha who has reserved her gentle side for patients while driving herself with complete discipline, honesty and integrity. Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai) Tourism education pioneer Bangalore-based educationist Dr. Shaji…
