Our Foundation
Mrs Lokanayagi was born in India on 20Sep 1941, and passed away on 4April 1986. Lokanayagi Adikesavan (LA) Cancer Research Foundation (501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization) is established for a noble cause, in the fond memory of Ms. Lokanayagi. It is of honor to mention that Ms. Lokanayagi (1941 – 1986) is the granddaughter of a very renowned Tamil scholar Thiruvarur Viruttachala Kalyanasundaram (Thiru.Vi.Ka), in Tamil Nadhu (TN), India. Thiru.Vi.Ka. was an Essayist, Editor of a Daily, and a Translator to Mahatma Gandhi (Father of Indian Nation ). About 50 of his nationalized works include Pennin Perumai (Greatness of Women) and Yesuvin Arul Vettal (Grace of Jesus) . The government of India has recognized and acknowledged his nobility and talent by releasing an Indian postal stamp and TN has named innumerable places, streets, bridges, etc., after Thiru. V. Ka, besides erecting his statue in public places . Lokanayagi inherited the quality of such a great man and lived as a simple but strong-willed woman in her days, and always thought of progress of woman. even in her small world. She served as Head of Department of Tamil Literature for some years in Government College for women, Mayavaram, TN, India, in 1960s, when college post-graduation of women was just uprising. She lived as a nonpareil dynamic and multifacted woman. She helped young girls to redesign themselves for personality development, on right pathways, in the day-to-day changing modern world. In fact Lokanayagi was a model for women in 20th century - to program self to be a good woman, good wife, good mother and an excellent professional. Lokanayagi’s speech relating to former Indian Prime Minsiter, Mrs Indra Gandhi, broadcast by the All India Radio, Trichy station in 1980’s, on woman growth and success in different fields - explicates her constant thirst for women’s progress in developing nations. With a broad outlook she even educated her maid servants at home, as she felt the girls missed to get what her daughter could, just because they were born in a poor family.
She was reiterating emphatically “We should compare self with people above us in knowledge, to seek more and below us in wealth, to be contended in life”. The founder of LA Research Foundation and daughter of Lokanayagi says that her mother portrayed herself as an iron lady forbearing what has come to her, after she was told she had Acute Myeloid Leukemia. At that time, in fact she wanted just three years more of life to do something for her daughter, whom she loved the most. But she could only live with her dreams, not more than a fortnight. Even her nearly a meter long black hair which she maintained for four decades, was not allowed to accompany her to the grave, as it was cut when treatment began in the hospital. She was such a loving mother who did not wish her young daughter to see her pitiable mental and physical condition while undergoing treatment in the cancer hospital, as she felt it would be an everlasting scar in the child’s mind. She never shed tears anytime for the short stay coming to a close. But just slowly conveyed to her husband, “I cannot fold my hands and pray my God, which I do every night before going to sleep, as my hands are paining after so many intravenous injections”. At the age of 44, on 4 Apr 1986, she passed away leaving behind her small family who can only think of her but never see her anytime. The loss of a dear member leaves an inexplicable sorrow lasting forever in the minds of the remaining, in a small family.
Even to date, cancer is still a threat to human life and creates a pathetic situation for the patient who awaits miracles to happen, if the treatment does not help. When it does not click, it leaves the family to grieve forever with the incomparable loss. It is a pity that the middle / lower class families of cancer patients are unable to provide continuous treatment and buy medicines for long (particularly in countries where people could not avail insurance policies with their small income) to keep the beloved member of their family, alive. Such a heavy loss in their own family, awakened the founder who is an ardent admirer of her mother Lokanayagi, to travel abroad to contribute for cancer research after her Ph.D. The pathway was not directed to this noble cause, although it lead to the "Discovery of a quorum-sensing inhibitor of drug-resistant staphylococcal infections by structure-based virtual screening" (Mol. Pharmacol. 2008 May;73(5):1578-86 ), along with the team. Seeing her mother’s grave where she lays, recently unidentifiable due to overlay of upraised railway tracks on top of it, invigorated the founder to launch the Lokanayagi cancer research foundation, to keep at the least, her imprints alive.
The LA Cancer Research Foundation is intended to aid the research community that strives hard to cure cancer and help families avoid tragedies in the future. It encourages and supports upcoming researchers dedicated with dynamism and concern for cancer research. It is designed to serve as a powerful source of support for the dedicated scientists to contribute by devising curative methods for cancer. En route, it also aims at educating people at large about known carcinogenic agents causing cancer for prevention and early detection for treatment. The earnest goal of the Foundation is to help cancer patients to be able to buy medicines at an affordable price, through in-house discovery of pharmaceutical drugs that can completely cure cancer, sans chance of recurrence. This is an ever cherished dream to come true, with research collaborations and support of public at large, all over the world, for the noble cause.