How will you manage household expenses now?

How will you afford the school fees of your young children?

How will you afford medical costs?

Why don’t you sell your house?

These were the questions thrown at Laveena Jain and her husband, who once ran a thriving private transport business in Meerut city of Uttar Pradesh. Everything turned upside down in 2010 when the couple was diagnosed with cancer — breast cancer for Laveena and mouth cancer for her husband.

With both undergoing surgeries back-to-back, followed by gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy, their transport business ground to a halt. They found themselves borrowing money from friends and family, with no clear idea of how much they had spent or how they would pay it back.

Each day was a battle not just for their survival, but for the future they dreamed of for their children.

The prospect of selling their home — a symbol of their hard-fought journey — was put forth as the solution to ease their burdens: clearing debts, covering school fees, managing medical expenses, and keeping food on the table for their children, without asking for external aid.

Recalling the daunting crossroads she once faced, Laveena shares, “We were devastated, not just financially but mentally and physically. Yet, we knew we were in this fight not just for ourselves, but for our children’s future. My son was 14 and my daughter was 12 years old. Selling our home felt like an admission of defeat and it was contrary to the example of perseverance we wished to set for our children. We considered it as a last resort.”

So she braced herself to confront the challenges head-on. It was this determination that became her guiding light during the darkest of times. In 2011, she decided to turn her passion for cooking into........

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