A rising basketball star’s journey of battling leukaemia

September 10, 2022 98 Views No Comment

Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | September 10

While people across the world rang in the New Year with great fervour and joy, for 23-year-old Thejangulie Mekro, it meant a start of an unknown journey as he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia on January 1 this year. A star basketball player from Nagaland, the news came at a time he was pursuing Visual Communication from Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai on a full sports scholarship.

Mekro was alone in the hospital when he received the news. “I didn’t know how to react. It was overwhelming in a bad way. There were no primary symptoms except chest pain and I had gone to get it checked from St. John’s Medical College Hospital in Bangalore. I was getting ready for the matches when I developed chest pain,” he recalls.

He was later treated at Apollo Hospital in Chennai for a period of five months, the process which included intense chemotherapy. “The first week was very difficult. I had to digest the fact that, forget about playing again, I thought I won’t survive,” he relates. Then, slowly, in his words, “the doctors said that there is so much of medical advancement and so I kept my faith strong.”

However again, there were also times when the doctors thought he wouldn’t make it, “but my faith kept me going,” Mekro says. When he was undergoing treatment, he thought that he would not be able to play any kind of sports thereafter. But there were positive results awaiting him towards the end of his treatment. Giving him a profound sense of relief is the magical word “remission”, as it does to any cancer patient. “Maybe five years from now, I can say I am cancer free,” he exudes hope.

Throughout the journey, everyone in his family of 6 including his parents, his two brothers and sister stayed strong. “We didn’t panic much, because we knew it wouldn’t help. Moreover, my dad has gone through a lot of adversities in life and he is the kind of person who is cool and calm in such a situation, and we look up to him,” he says.

Towards this end, he is also extremely grateful to Prasanna Jayshankar, the former captain of the Indian women’s basketball team who played a major role in his recovery and also kept on motivating him to fight and survive. “When I was undergoing treatment, I had to use 35 units of blood, and the local people in Tamil Nadu also helped me a lot by generously donating their blood freely,” he goes on to say.

When he got off treatment, the first game Mekro took part in was the recently conducted Nagaland Olympic & Paralympic Games 2022 where his basketball team under Kohima district emerged champions. During the Olympic, 16 of the best basketball players including him were selected for trial to represent the state at the national level, but he has decided not to take part owing to his health. “I am alright 80% now but still yet to fully recover,” he relates.

At the age of eighteen, Mekro was selected to undergo 9-month training at the Europe Basketball Academy (EBA) in Barcelona right after he finished his 12th from Kohima Science College, Jotsoma. EBA is a leading Academy in Europe which aims to nurture young players and has produced notable Basketball players. In 2019, he also represented the youth team of the academy in and around Spain and was further selected to go for international matches in Belgium and France.

Mekro will be completing his course from Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai this year. Locally, he is part of the Mystic Ballers Team, and he is grateful to both his former and present classmates, his teaching staff back in the university, who have been very understanding and helped him a lot throughout his difficult journey of battling cancer.

As for the sports scenario in the state, he expresses, “I think we are in a transitional period, where the older generations are realising that sport is something we, Nagas are capable of.”

“It is our duty to make them realise that we can also do it. When it comes to sports, we, Nagas are one of the most talented even among North East,” he says.

Source: https://www.morungexpress.com/a-rising-basketball-stars-journey-of-battling-leukaemia