RAY OF HOPE

Actor and cancer survivor Lisa Ray talks to oncologist Dr Jame Abraham about inner strength and her surrogacy journey

- Lisa Ray

LISA RAY THINKS she is almost a cat with the number of lives she has lived. The actor was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare form of blood cancer, in 2009, and has since beaten the disease, written about it and is one of the most visible survivors on the speakers’ circuit.

At the second edition of THE WEEK Health Summit in Delhi, Ray spoke to oncologist Dr Jame Abraham, of the Cleveland Clinic, about how she found her inner strength, the need for doctors to also have emotional support, and her journey into motherhood. Excerpts from the conversation:

JA: Is this Lisa Ray 2.0 or 3.0?
LR: I’ve lost track of the many different manifestations; perhaps I’m closer to a cat with many lives, definitely more than two going on three or four right now. Though broadly speaking, one can divide life into pre-cancer and post-cancer…. When I was diagnosed in 2009, I was given a fairly scary, dire diagnosis. I was told in no uncertain terms by the haematologist that I had about five years to live. And he showed me well laid-out data points and things like that. And that’s when the rebel in me perhaps reared its head. Of course I have a deep respect for science and the medical sciences. My father is a scientist; he has his PhD in chemistry. However, we have to account for this X factor, which is the human spirit.