Guwahati: Assam-based Renowned Oncologist Ravi Kannan has been named one of the four winners of the 2023 Ramon Magsaysay Award.
Kannan, who is posted as the director of Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (CCHRC) at Silchar in Assam, is a recipient of India’s fourth-highest civilian award Padma Shri.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
Kannan is the first doctor from Northeast to receive the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, dubbed as the Asian Nobel Prize.
Kannan described the award as an honour for his hospital and added he would receive it only as its head.
He said the award belongs to all the people who have joined hands to make the lives of those suffering from cancer better.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
”The award is not about myself but about many people including 450 colleagues of the Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, whose contribution is immense, and the not-for-profit society that set it up,” Kannan told reporters.
”The award belongs to many people, the hospital and the community who have joined hands to make lives better for those suffering from cancer and I am just one of the many faces involved in this effort,” he said.
”We have to go near people and focus on prevention, treatment and cancer care. We need a lot of support for infrastructure and equipment, which are one-time investments, but what we need most is human resources which is a recurring requirement”, the oncologist said.
He said that both state and central governments have always supported us and with government health schemes like Atal Amrit Abhyan and others, poor people are getting better treatment.
”We are a society-run centre but whenever we ask for any support, the government never says no,” he said.
Kannan said he wants to tell each and every patient that cancer is curable like any other disease.
”I don’t want to see a single person dying without dignity because he or she has cancer,” he said.
Son of an Indian Air Force personnel, Kannan hails from Chennai where he earlier worked as a surgeon in Adyar Cancer Institute before moving to Silchar with his wife in 2007 to start the Cachar Cancer Hospital.