On #WorldCancerDay, here's a story full of love, inspiration and determination

Those who know me, know that I have battled 3 cancers so far in my life. The first one knocked my door in early 2013, when Mom got diagnosed with Stage 3 Cancer. I got to know about it on a phone call from my Mausaji, because neither Dad nor Mom could gather the courage to break the news to us. I literally felt my heart sinking into my stomach. There is no news so horrible than to know that one of your parents will be suffering from this deadly disease.

Only a few weeks later, I got to know about Ranjeet Kumar's Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

I could literally feel my world crashing down, and from a person who was afraid even to visit hospitals, I now became a person frequenting hospitals, meeting doctors, understanding the process.

My Mom is a Hero in true sense of the word. Not once during her entire course of treatment did she seem perturbed or even remotely worried. She, in fact, said, that maybe its a blessing in disguise that she's getting to spend so much time with her children. Can you even imagine?

Ranjeet is a fighter (In many ways, though). He's one person who's not only beaten cancer thrice (2 relapses), but also the person who in the middle of all this, set up Team Pumpkin, hired employees, won clients and many more things which would seem impossible even for a regular human being. His heroic determination to live life is a life-long inspiration for so many of us!

The third and the most heart-breaking cancer was that of my Dad. He's a person who till date does not even pronounce "cancer" as "cancer". He calls it "a dirty disease" and we're supposed to understand he is referring to cancer. A person, who is so so picky at eating food had to live for an entire month on liquid diet and every single bite of food we took during that time was a bite of guilt.

All my heroes have now successfully beaten cancer and are living their lives, healthily, heartily and with so much gratitude.

Battling 3 cancers, even if from the outside, wasn't easy. To see the people you love so much, suffer every single day of the treatment, is the most difficult feeling to swallow.

I was blessed with a great support system though.

My younger sister, all through these times, played the elder sister to me. She was the one keeping all of us composed when we emotional people broke down. It was just as difficult for her as it was for me, but she chose to be the strong one in the relationship.

My husband, as always was the pillar of support throughout. We would've lost many battles and wars if he did not step in at the right time. From holding all of us together to taking critical decisions to even financially organizing means, he was there, rock solid!

I also remember my team's support during this time. When I called him one fine day and told him that Dad has been diagnosed with cancer, my colleague Vivek had a one-sentence reply - "Please give my number to all the clients, and you just switch off from work, I will take care of it all!" Vivek, you have no idea how much this one sentence meant to me back then.

I have so many people to thank - my employers, my clients, my friends, my relatives and every single person for your warmth during the tough times. It really helped us more than what you could imagine.

Looking back, I cannot believe we all could sail safely out of these situations, much stronger and much more full of gratitude.

For any of you going through a similar situation, just keep the faith. It'll all be over soon and you'll get all the love you deserve!