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Sunita is a pharmaceutical research manager at a leading pharma company. She loves her job. She has had at least two major promotions in the last few years because of her good work and deep passion and care she takes. She has a quick mind couple with a quick wit but that’s not what really puts Sunita in a category all by herself. It was the story she told me.
About two years ago Sunita got a message on LinkedIn from a man who said that he had a friend who had a particular type of breast cancer that had no substantive treatment and therefore his friend, a mother of three children, would most like by dead in less than a year.
Sunita who had taken interest in a couple of her family members’ cancer treatment took an interest in this case. The person who contacted her was a stranger and the woman with cancer was a stranger, but Sunita saw the connection as an opportunity to see if she could be of service to both of them.
She came to find out that the woman who the man on LinkedIn was referring to was a doctor. She was a forty-year old very vibrant woman who wanted to take a pro-active approach to her cancer treatment.
Sunita and the doctor soon became close friends sharing regularly on Skype all they knew about the disease and the few possibilities for treatment as well as their dreams and hopes.
Sunita found herself becoming more and more involved with helping the doctor. One of her favorite times was when they got to talk on Skype which she did right after she and her husband would call their families in India on Sundays. “It was like this woman was also one of our family members.” She said to me. “I could not wait to catch up with her week after week to see how she was doing.”
Sunita spent months searching for a drug that would help this woman and finally found one that had proven strong results in clinical trials. The company that produced the drug was out of San Francisco. There were only about 24 people in the company which would make it much easier perhaps to convince those at the top to provide the drug to the doctor. But recently the company had been bought by a larger organization so this fact might also cause problems.
Sunita called the president of the company and left a voice mail. She heard nothing. She tried again. Again she heard nothing. She kept trying. She finally got in touch with the president’s secretary and got innovative after hearing from the secretary that even she did not understand why her boss was not calling Sunita back.
Sunita asked for the names of two people in the company who might be sensitive to her cause. The secretary gave her two names. One of the people called Sunita back within twenty minutes.
He shared that although he could not guarantee anything he would try to get some of the drug okayed through corporate to be delivered to the doctor within the week.
This time Sunita’s request was successful. Within the week the doctor received her first round of the new drug. Within weeks the doctor’s cancer that had metastasized to her lungs disappeared.
The doctor and Sunita are still talking every Sunday. The doctor starts each email she sends Sunita with “Dear Angel.” And Sunita? Sunita said to me, “I have had many wonderful things happen in my life but this thing that I have done for this stranger is the best. I find myself at peace.”
Sunita’s story is haunting to me—hauntingly simple—hauntingly peaceful. The ability we have to make a difference in each other’s lives can never be taken too lightly.
Related articles
- Guru with a cause (bbc.co.uk)
- Does alternative treatment offer hope for cancer patients? (zocdoc.com)
