My Social Enterprise – How it’s going to save HUNDREDS of thousands of lives. Get To Sleep Easy!

My life changed a few years ago when I was told, “Nikhil, the good news is you’re 17 and you have leukemia, but the bad news is you’re 17… and you have leukemia.” Then I asked him the one question every cancer patient dreads: “What are my chances?” He looked at me, sighed and said, “10-20 percent that you’ll live the next five years.” Somehow, I got through that. But it did get close. Quite a few times actually. And now that I’m a medical student and cancer researcher, I can appreciate just how close “close” actually was. During my treatment, I suffered […]

Cancer Patient Plays Well, and Wins Big For Charity.

Last post:                                     My Story:                                         Next One Recently, I was given some pretty bad news. I’ve got bronchiolitis obliterans, a lung manifesation of the graft versus host disease that plagues me after my bone marrow transplant. Essentially, it’s my donor’s immune system (in bone marrow transplants, you inherit the blood making cells of your donor, which includes their white blood cells) attacking me. This time though, in the lungs. […]

How it Feels to Have a Chronic Illness. And How to Explain it to Normal People.

Last post:                                     My Story:                                         Next One  “How are you going these days Nikhil?”  It’d been literally half a year since I’d seen this group of friends – my med student buddies – and I had to do the rounds. This question came up a lot. And almost always, it was about my health.  “So yeah I’m actually good!” I’d always start, smiling and gesturing wildly so as […]

An Open Letter to Doctors from a Scared Patient in Scared Times.The Best Doctors I’ve had. And the Worst.

Last post:                                     My Story:                                         Next One Being a patient isn’t easy. Especially when you’re in hospital in an emergency situation, as I was last week… For those who didn’t know – I presented to emergency last week, midway through chemo, with shortness of breath and they ended up finding a new cancer on my fourth rib on the right. Don’t worry though – I’m fine!  They removed […]

What’s Going On. My Eye-Opening Experience. And How I Got Through It.

Last post:                                     My Story:                                         Next One Latest Updates at bottom of post. Video of this here: It happened again. In the other eye. But it’s OK. I didn’t lose that one =] Update here: So this morning, I left a weird status update on my personal Facebook.  I know a few friends and family are worried about this, as some of you reading this may be, so […]

How We Prepare To Feed 10billion People. My Essay Response.

Last post:                                     My Story:                                         Next One Preparing for an Impending Food Crisis. This was my entry into an international essay competition to pick delegates for the annual, amazingly inspiring Youth Agricultural Summit (find out more about it here). Results come out in March. Wish me Luck!! Well… I actually won this! And got to go to the International Youth Ag Summit – and we delivered our decleration […]

You won’t believe what my friends got me before chemo… Boys will be Boys. Humour in Hospital #7

 Last post:                                     My Story:                                         Next One Last #HIH:  Next #HIH: Chemo was about to start.    At this stage I was ready. I’d taken a step back from the depression and shock of diagnosis. I’d questioned all my doubts and fears and was now focusing on being as healthy and as happy as possible. The only things I could control.   I’d locked myself up in my […]

The 200km Ride To Conquer Cancer… Conquered. It was the Best Weekend of my life!

Last post:                                     My Story:                                         Next One As many of you know, I’ve been preparing for this bike ride. And I’m glad to announce… formally, well, on this blog, that only 2 months after I was done with chemo, I managed to complete the Sydney 200km Ride to Conquer Cancer! I was scared about it for months… But when I arrived at the start-line… just seeing so many […]

7 Great UCAT Tips You Probably Haven’t Heard Before

This was pretty much a copy-pasted conversation I had with a friend asking for UCAT tips, so sorry if it’s not that well worded. In the time I did it – the UCAT was called the UCAT! But the principles, time sensitive nature of the test, and test taking skills are essentially the same. I figured I’d put up one of these so I wouldn’t have to do them individually any more and to help you guys out =P For those who don’t know, the UMAT – now known as UCAT – is a challenging pre-medical test every prospective doctor needs to […]

Giving to Charity is a Win-Win. Businesses, Governments, and People like us Can’t Affort NOT to Give to the Poor.

Last post:                                     My Story:                                         Next One Effective altruism is a movement that’s revolutionising the way we give to the poor. Peter Singer described it as “one that combines both the heart and the head.” The heart empathising with and wanting help the less well off; the head ensuring our efforts to do so went the furthest. That’s where the concept of effectiveness comes in. A hundred dollars […]