Not all CrediHeroes live to tell their tales. One such hero is Shri Ashok Kumar Dixit... was a mechanical engineer at Birla. His daughter shares his story with us.

My Daddy was complaining about loss of appetite, tasteless in food and difficulty in swallowing for some time but we all attributed it to his missing teeth. He was a heart patient and was constantly in touch with doctors who could not find anything wrong superficially. But we all had a nagging feeling that something was not quite right. He had always been a pillar of strength and has raised us almost single-handedly, our mum being sick most of the time.

Finally on the morning of 22^nd April he passed stool which was black in color immediately after which he went to the hospital with his family. To their further shock, he vomited a lot of blood which had turned black. He was subsequently diagnosed with Esophagus cancer which had reached 4^th stage.

Shri Dixitji's daughter tells us how they never got any support from their doctors. Shockingly, the first cycle of chemotherapy resulted in a heart attack and could not be continued.

We then went to one of the best heart hospital in New Delhi and got an ICD and stent implanted to get his fragile heart beating. We even consulted at AIIMS but got no hope. When his heart stabilized, we brought him home. To assist in swallowing we had a stomach tube implanted as he slowly lost the ability to swallow even liquids.

By then his cancer had spread even more and we watched helplessly drifting him in coma.

All of us think we are invincible but my father really was. He never gave up and fought till the end. He bore the disease with so much dignity and courage which is not possible for normal human beings. I just wish we could have saved him somehow. Nothing can prepare you for the trauma and pain of cancer. I don't have any advice to give as my Daddy was neither a drinker nor a smoker. So I can't still understand why he got this disease.