Eight year old Aronyatesh Ganguly has not only made the country, but the state proud too by winning gold in the 2019 World Children’s Winners Game 2019 in Moscow. The eight year old can truly be considered a true winner as he is a cancer survivor.
Diagnosed with Leukemia in 2016, brave Aronyatesh underwent numerous rounds of Chemotherapy and medication until he was declared cancer free in December 2018. He does require regular follow-up’s to ensure that the disease isn’t back. During his stay at the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai did he and his doctors discover his passion for sports.
After his recovery, Aronyatesh started practicing for the event diligently. His routine called for him to wake up at 5:30 a.m. followed by track and football practice till 7:30 and then swimming, chess and table tennis in the afternoon and shooting practice in the evening.
His shooting academy Coach, Pankaj Poddar has nothing but praises for the boy, even calling him his prodigy at times since he hit “bull’s eye” on the very second day of classes. Poddar doesn’t charge a single penny for Aronyatesh’s classes and hopes to find a sponsor for him to provide kits so he can continue training.
The World’s Children’s Winners game is an international sports competition for cancer survivors, first introduced in Russia in 2010 by the Podari Zhizn. This was the 10th year of the games and it had over 1300 participants, 10 being from India. Aronyatesh was one of them, and the only one from West Bengal. All children between 7-16 years who are cancer survivors are allowed to participate. All expenses from meals, transportation, accommodation etc are taken care of by the Games Committee except for the expenses of the participant’s travel to Moscow.
Aronyatesh’s mother Kaveri, who accompanied him to Moscow said “ Aronyatesh was so excited, he forgot the suffering he had gone through”.
