Meenakshi Mission Hospital & Research Centre (MMHRC), the biggest hospital in South Tamil Nadu with 1,000 beds, organized a month-long pan-India car rally for spreading awareness about childhood cancer. This first-of-its-kind mass connect initiative for the disease
covered 15 states of India, travelling more than 10,000 kilometers. The rally, that began from Madurai in end of April, travelled all the way up to Laddakh and Srinagar and back again to Madurai, passing through 30 cities across the country in a period of 30 days.

The car rally was flagged off with much fanfare at MMHRC campus in Madurai on Apr 27th, 2019, by Dr. S Gurushankar, Chairman of the hospital, in presence of distinguished guests, doctors, nurses and administrative staff.

Speaking about this unique initiative, Mr. J Adel, GM Head - Marketing MMHRC Madurai, said, “Globally, more than 3 lakh children are affected by cancer every year. Parent are devastated the moment they hear that their child has cancer, but not many of them know that more than 80% patients of childhood cancer can be totally cured if detected in time. That is why creating awareness about this disease among the masses is very important. At our hospital, we have a dedicated department for child cancer and have treated thousands of patients successfully. With this month-long car rally covering 30 cities in as many days from South to North India, we wanted to spread the message of curability of childhood cancer and help reduce its incidence in the country.”

Doctors say that cancers that develop in children are different from those that develop in adults. The main cause of these is not lifestyle or environmental factors, but the DNA changes in cells that take place very early in a child’s life. Across the month of May, the car rally of Meenakshi Hospital travelled through 30 cities including Madurai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Gwalior, Agra, Bareilly, Nainital, Rishikesh, Dehradun, Shimla, Manali, Pathankot, Jammu, Pulwama, Srinagar, Sonamarg, Kargil, Leh, Pangong, Nubra Valley, Amritsar, Jaipur, Ajmer, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai, Pune, Hubli and Salem.