When sailor Nitin Mongia takes his yacht out to the sea, it’s not always with an Olympic or Asian Games medal in mind. There are days when his goal is simply to bring a smile to the faces of those accompanying him.

Mongia, a silver medallist at the Doha Asian Games in 2006, was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia a year before that. After going through, and overcoming, the trauma experienced by cancer patients, he now tries to help others deal with the distress caused by constant hospital visits and long chemotherapy sessions, by taking them on his boat for a breath of fresh air. “Cancer may not always kill you, but it can leave you without any life. What I do is help patients forget their daily hassles of medical tests and heavy medication for a while,” the 38-year-old tells The Sunday Express.

“The patients and their relatives are taken aback when I tell them that I suffer from CML and have managed to keep it under control with a positive approach,” says Mongia, who runs the ‘Sail For Cancer, Sport For Life Foundation’ with the aim to promote wellness through sports among people suffering from cancer.

The reason behind Mongia’s zeal is his own experience with the disease, and the initial pain and suffering he went through after being diagnosed. “In July 2005, I was competing in a weekend event when I felt too fatigued and failed to complete the event. I went for tests and the doctor told me that I’m in the second stage of leukemia,” says Mongia. “I went completely blank. The first thing that struck me was if I’ll live to see my three-year-old daughter’s wedding.”

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