‘Would I Come Through It?’, Sonia Gandhi Memoir Details Cancer Battle, Surgery And Overseas Treatment

Sonia Gandhi has written in her memoir that she battled cancer twice, feared a “scary outcome” and chose treatment abroad despite having “full confidence” in doctors at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi. The Congress leader described the diagnosis, surgery and a later pancreatic scare in Belonging: A Journey of Love.

The book recounts her breast-cancer surgery in 2010 and the anxiety that followed when another growth was found in her pancreas. Sonia wrote that she was deeply uneasy about public scrutiny of her illness and decided to leave India for treatment even though she trusted the Delhi doctors treating her.

Cancer Diagnosis Details

Sonia located the episode in the Congress-led UPA government's second term.

“Our second UPA term brought me some personal challenges. Apart from occasional bouts of asthma and allergies, I'd had no serious health troubles until then. As my doctors pointed out, stress is one of the main causes of stomach disorders, and, sure enough, these became frequent and worsened as I grew older and got drawn into politics myself,” she wrote.

She then described the first diagnosis. “Then in 2010 a more serious problem arose: I was advised an operation for suspected breast cancer,” she wrote. After that surgery, another growth was detected in her pancreas during a follow-up test, the memoir says.

Privacy And Treatment

Privacy shaped her decision.

“I had always sought to keep my personal space private, and the thought of my illness being discussed in the media was painful to me, even infuriating. True, I had become a public figure, but did that mean I wasn't to be allowed even a modicum of privacy?” she wrote.

Sonia said she went abroad for treatment despite her confidence in doctors at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi. She was treated at the European Institute of Oncology outside Milan in Italy. Later, after the pancreatic growth was found, she was referred to the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam.

Family At Surgery

Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were with her on the day of the procedure. One senior officer, her children Rahul, Priyanka and her husband Robert Vadra, and her sisters Nadia and Anouchka were also present, according to the account in the memoir.

“On the day of the surgery, as I was wheeled into the operation theatre, Rahul and Priyanka held my hand and kissed me on the forehead, assuring me that all would be well,” Sonia wrote. She said two tumours, including a non-suspicious one, were removed during the surgery. Doctors also conducted intra-operative radiation to “spare me five weeks of radiotherapy.”

Worst-Case Fears

“My mind began to dwell on a worst-case scenario. What if it turned out to be a metastatic growth? Would I come through it? Would I need to undergo chemotherapy? How long would I have to be away from home and work? I had felt unhappy leaving without notice to any but the prime minister and a few senior colleagues,” she wrote.

The doctor later explained that the tumour was in a preliminary precancerous stage, she wrote. That reassurance came after the follow-up tests that sent her to Rotterdam for further evaluation.