{"id":5074,"date":"2016-09-28T09:42:50","date_gmt":"2016-09-28T04:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kashmir.today\/?p=5074"},"modified":"2016-09-28T09:42:50","modified_gmt":"2016-09-28T04:12:50","slug":"cancer-no-impediment-30-yr-old-volunteer-smhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=5074","title":{"rendered":"Cancer no impediment to this 30-yr-old volunteer at SMHS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SRINAGAR: A young man suffering from cancer is among the volunteers providing help to patients and their attendants at SMHS hospital.<br \/>\nAfaq Rashid Khan, aged 30, lives in Srinagar\u2019s Batamaloo area. In the premises of SMHS hospital where tents have been erected by several voluntary organisations, Afaq on Monday is exchanging greetings with a group of five men. Seeing his elegant manner and eloquent speech, it is hard to believe that he is afflicted with cancer.<br \/>\nAfter the greetings are over, he comes forward to say Assalam alaikum and introduces himself. There is no stress on his calm and determined face. He says his mission is \u201cservice of humanity\u201d.<br \/>\nEmployed as a switchboard attendant on ad hoc basis in the Upper Sindh Hydro Project at Kangan in Ganderbal district, Afaq was diagnosed with colon cancer a year ago.<br \/>\n\u201cBefore I was diagnosed with cancer I had been suffering from severe pain in the lower stomach. The doctors were treating me but were unable to diagnose the problem,\u201d Afaq said.<br \/>\nWhen he lost weight drastically in a few days, he went to Dr Nisar Ahmed Wani. \u201cHe asked me about my family, marriage and profession. He also consoled me, saying life and death lie in God\u2019s hands. But he did not say what the matter with me was,\u201d Afaq said.<br \/>\n\u201cDoctor Chacha\u201d, as Afaq calls Dr Nisar Wani, called him to hospital and did some tests on the day an earthquake struck Kashmir, October 25, 2015. \u201cOn that day he broke the news. When the whole of Kashmir was jolted, I was jolted by another shock,\u201d said Afaq.<br \/>\nThe next day, an operation was performed on Afaq at the hospital.<br \/>\nIt is not that Afaq has been doing voluntary work after he was diagnosed with cancer. His social service dates back to the year 2002, when Afaq\u2019s father suffered Hyperglycemia (high blood sugar level). \u201cHis kidneys were at risk. That day I recognised that the real pain lies in hospitals. I took a pledge to do something for people (Khidmat-e-Khalq).\u201d<br \/>\nLuckily, Afaq\u2019s father was saved. Afaq began working on the pledge he had taken.<br \/>\n\u201cIn between I became married and had three daughters, Alhamdullilah,\u201d said Afaq. \u201cSee, life and death lie in the hands of Allah. He can offer shifa (cure) to any disease. Our job is to help people come out of misery if we can do that.\u201d<br \/>\nThe family of Afaq has been actively backing him. \u201cMy parents and wife always push me to be engaged in this social work. They perhaps think that my mind will be diverted with this, but even if I had no disease I would have done this,\u201d said Afaq.<br \/>\n\u201cWhy to worry when the whole world can be one\u2019s family? It is no big deal just dying for oneself; to die in the cause of humanity is the real service,\u201d said Afaq. <strong>(Kashmir Reader)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SRINAGAR: A young man suffering from cancer is among the volunteers providing help to patients and their attendants at SMHS hospital. Afaq Rashid Khan, aged 30, lives in Srinagar\u2019s Batamaloo area. In the premises of SMHS hospital where tents have been erected by several voluntary organisations, Afaq on Monday is exchanging greetings with a group [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}