Brain Cancer: International Journalist From Odisha Kamal Kumar Seeks Help & Hope
Feb 10: An Young and ambitious Kamal Kumar, man from Odisha’s Rourkela, had started his journalism career over two decades back. In the wildest ever of his dreams he had never imagined he would face this fatal illness at the peak of his career. However, he is fighting the cancerous brain tumor.
In the year 1998, Kamal Kumar came to the Capital City, Bhubaneswar, in search of Job and an identity of his own. He was just 18-years-old by then. With the professional certificate in Television Direction & Production, he started his career as a journalist, in a 24×7 Vernacular TV channel here.
Though he wanted to pursue career as a Production Assistant, but Kamal Kumar’s dedication and longing to learn new and novel he, scaled as a Journalist too. His eagerness to explore challenge3s, led him to several places and organisations across Middle East, North America, and the Indian subcontinent in a span of over two decades.
In his long career of 20 years, he has worked as an Editor, Senior Producer, and a member of the launch team of AJ+, Al Jazeera’s first all-digital network; as Managing Editor and Senior Producer in TRT World, global English language channel of Turkish National broadcaster TRT; and as a freelance Video Journalist for British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC); covering stories on politics, human rights, natural history, conflict resolution, insurgency, art, and culture.
He’s known for his vivid Special story of Islamic calligraphy for TRT World:
“Humans of War” (TRT World’s special editorial project) as Managing Editor, is Kamal’s another interesting and International Ground Report.
Kamal’s life took a turn when he had returned to India from Turkey and had got an offer to do a documentary on child abuse. It was while he was preparing for the project by the end of 2020, he experienced an excruciating headache and loss of vision.
He wrapped up his shoot and rushed back home. Subsequently, he visited the hospital and after CT scan and MRI, Kamal was diagnosed with GBM wild type, a brain tumor. The results of the biopsy of his tumor said that it was cancerous and that too of the last stage. But neither he nor his family and dear ones and the surgeon lost hopes.
With all resources gathered from Kamal’s father, sister and friends have been invested to give a new life to him. On December 29, 2020 Kamal, has gone trough operation in Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram.
“I am very lucky to have my friends, brothers, and sisters stand with me at this moment. I am struggling because of the disease and personal reasons but there are millions of people out there who are in a worse situation than me,” says Kamal.
The situation worsened as his MRI report after nine months of surgery suggested that his tumor and cancer were coming back. The tumor board of the Fortis Hospital (Gurugram) put him on advanced chemotherapy that comprises 6 sessions and each session costs around Rs. 75,000 and the subsequent treatment are even costlier.
With his current situation, he and his family are facing difficulty paying for the sessions and further treatment.
“As a journalist, I have to be out and about in the field. I cannot write a story and do justice with it by sitting in an AC room. I have to get close to the story. That is not possible as my health doesn’t permit that. It is also the mindset of the organisation, as nobody wants to take the risk by giving a job or freelance project to a terminally ill person,” says Kamal.
He presently has an offer from the China Global Television Network to join as Editor, International News Desk, but his health conditions and the pandemic are playing obstructive.
So, Kamal has sought financial support from the public through the online crowd funding platform Ketto. One can extend their help through the following link:
Kamal can also be contacted at- [email protected]
