At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring some of the meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community of entrepreneurs, investors, management students and aspiring entrepreneurs.
This week, we spoke to an inspiring womenpreneur Dimple Parmar to know more about her motivational journey.
Dimple is the Co-Founder and CEO of Love Heals Cancer and ZenOnco.io. Having lost Nitesh (her husband) to cancer, she has dedicated her life to helping cancer patients.
For her inspiring and revolutionary work, Dimple has been awarded “Top 100 Healthcare Leader award” by the International Forum of Advancement in Healthcare. She is an active panellist and speaker at multiple seminars.
To pursue her journey of helping other cancer patients better, She learnt and completed training like Integrative Oncology, Mind-Body-Medicine, Healing Circles, Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies, Mindful Caregiving Education, End of Life Conversation and almost everything required to empower others. Dimple graduated from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM Calcutta) and worked with major corporates before embarking on her purposeful journey.
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Dimple:
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
Having gone through two years of cancer journey with Nitesh, sacrificing a lot of things and then losing him to cancer has opened my eyes and that’s where I found my purpose of life.
Though I had an option of joining back BNY Mellon (that lucrative career) but I chose my purpose over it because
I strongly feel If I had gone back to BNY Mellon, the two years of sacrifices, sacrifice of Nitesh’s life and all of it would have gone in vain. You know – The whole experience, our friendship, me falling in love with Nitesh and marrying him inspite of the fact that we don’t have much time to spend together.
There is also a spiritual reason for it. After he passed away, I found my true calling and realised the fact that God has chosen me for this to help others. I found the motivation and strength from it and knew that I have courage, passion, and the compassion to do something for others and I am also grateful for all the resources that I have, network of good people from all walks of life be it healthcare or management, my friends and the support of everyone around me. I thought why not create something meaningful out of this beautiful experience and help millions of other people.
Hence I chose entrepreneurship and started ‘Love Heals Cancer’ And ‘ZenOnco.io’
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
For me, the source of motivation is ‘People’
I now want to touch as many lives as possible through this cause. Our vision is to support, help and guide those who are battling cancer.
When you hear the word ‘Cancer’, your whole life changes and nothing else matters – no money; no relation; nothing but the person who has been diagnosed with cancer.
You just don’t know how much time the person has. Our goal is always to support both the patient and the caregiver. Even If we are able to save one person’s life then it gives immense satisfaction.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Thank you for asking this question. It’s a very important question as well. We all have our own set of challenges and obstacles.
So in my situation, some of the challenges when I was going through that journey were:
1 – We did not have access to the right information at the right time.
2 – We were not aware of integrated oncology and other treatments available and
3 – It was too late in our case.
4 – I just wish I had someone who could have guided us at that time.
The thing is both the patient and the caregiver go through a horrible experience due to lack of resources and support at the right time. That’s the challenge I faced.
Through my startup ZenOnco.io, that’s exactly what we are trying to solve.
Please tell us more about your new venture ZenOnco.io?
Me and one of my friends from IIM Calcutta, Kishan Shah co-founded ZenOnco.io. Kishan was doing volunteering with me before. He worked with JP Morgan and GIC Private Equity before joining me on my mission.
ZenOnco.io is India’s first integrated oncology care centre. We try to find the right balance from various treatments available and extend the lives of cancer patients through that, as much as possible.
We fulfil all the cancer-related needs right from diagnosis to nutrition and fitness to psychology.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
In terms of managing the experience, I don’t think I was able to manage it well when I was with Nitesh. But I knew I had the courage to do what I was doing at that time. One thing that helped immensely was chanting. There is this Buddhist saying. I follow all the healing and wellness practices that we advise to other patients.
I also don’t take gluten products or even Sugar. I feel eating healthy food and taking good care of your body, staying active, doing some physical activities always helps.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
I am not sure if it is a strategy or if it is my innate ability. But I would say it is ‘hard work’ that has helped me grow. Plus, the advice of my grandparents and the discipline they taught.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
For me, the key to success is – do what you believe in. If you don’t find something interesting then you should not do it because you will not be able to give it your best.
If you are not happy with the work then you should not do it. Do justice to everything that you do.
During Nitesh’s treatment, I had an option to join work which I even tried but I failed miserably because that’s not where my heart and mind was. I could not focus on my work.
For that reason, in ZenOnco.io the people who work here are all passionate about the cause. We always keep in mind that the person we hire does what he is passionate about to make it the right match.
If you really love your work then you would always succeed.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
My advice for everyone would be –
1 – You should first try to understand whether it is the need of the hour and do some research as well.
2 – Know that It is ok to fail.
3 – It is ok to cut down on a few things.
And my advice, particularly for women, is –
1 – You don’t have to be perfect in everything; you don’t have to be the superwoman because it is a shared responsibility. You don’t have to be perfect everywhere. Everything will happen and it will happen in its own way. So when you are starting out, just follow your heart.
2 – Also, women usually don’t take care of their health well. It’s high time women start taking care of their health along with other family members. We see the most common forms of cancer in women are breast cancer and cervical cancer. In the case of breast cancer, it is easily detectable and curable but we don’t pay attention till the late stage because we don’t take care of our health. So take good care of your health no matter what you do.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
