Women's Day: Zerodha's Nithin Kamath shares wife's cancer journey

Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath has tweeted an important message from his wife on International Women’s Day. Kamath shared that his wife Seema Patil was diagnosed with breast cancer last November. He added a link to her blog where she spoke about her experiences through her recovery and the importance of regular health check-ups and overall wellbeing for women.

“Seema, my wife, was diagnosed with breast cancer last Nov. She decided to share her journey & learnings till now to create awareness on cancer & the importance of regular health checkups, health insurance & overall health & well being. Happy Women's Day,” the Zerodha CEO tweeted.

Seema, my wife, was diagnosed with breast cancer last Nov. She decided to share her journey & learnings till now to create awareness on cancer & the importance of regular health checkups, health insurance & overall health & well being.Happy Women's Day. https://t.co/09hsHMDPWp

— Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) March 8, 2022

Seema Patil and Kamath have been married since 2008, and Patil has been serving as director in Zerodha where she also holds the post of Chief Quality Officer.

“I am Seema, and I am, or maybe was the healthiest and fittest person I knew. I absolutely did everything possible to be healthy and I thought nothing could physically slow me down until I was diagnosed with breast cancer in Nov 2021. Stage 2 cancer and not more than 2 years old,” wrote Patil in her blog.

She added that she found out about the cancer after finding a lump in her breast through a mammography test. After visiting an oncologist to check out the lump, it was confirmed that the tumour was indeed cancerous.

“I have since then spoken to many oncologists and all of them just reiterated the same - how important regular health checkups are. Today, cancer is curable, unless it is too late before it is spotted. I have been using every opportunity to talk about the importance of health checkups, even if you look and feel healthy,” she wrote.

“As a takeaway from reading this, I would love it if you could talk about the importance of regular health checkups to as many people as you can,” she added.

After her diagnosis, she was gripped with confusion about what to do next, as is often the cause with such a disease. Deciding to receive treatment in India itself, despite having the financial freedom to choose from international healthcare providers, she was treated at the Manipal Hospital, Bengaluru.

One of the biggest shocks to Patil was the revelation that she would need a mastectomy, a surgical procedure where all the breast tissue is removed to prevent future cancerous growth. She added that while the cosmetic aspect of the surgery was not often talked about by doctors, it was something that affected her mentally.

“While the cosmetic aspect shouldn’t ideally have even bothered me when there was a much bigger issue of cancer in my body, it did!”

She also questioned the importance of being fit in the first place if it could still lead to medical issues like cancer.

“I had constantly questioned myself on why I should have cared for my diet and fitness as much as I did if someone like me could get cancer. I soon realised how important it is to stay healthy, apart from a thousand other reasons, you can also bounce back much faster if there were any unforeseen incidents, like the mastectomy in my case,” she wrote.

Another side effect that mentally affected her was the loss of her hair during chemotherapy.

“The doctor said that one of the side effects of the Chemo drug was the hair loss. Once again, no other side effects that the doctor spoke of registered in my head, except the hair loss. I loved my hair and never thought of my head without it. I guess Nithin also figured that this losing hair could be psychologically more disturbing than everything else I was going through.”

“While using a wig is an option, and by then Nithin had already spoken to a bunch of wig manufacturers, it just didn’t feel right. By now, both Nithin and I have spoken multiple times about how cancer is taboo and why it is important for those affected to speak openly about it,” she added.

The two decided that the best option to go forward was to shave their heads.

Patil added that she was sharing her story to address the “core issue of cancer being a taboo, and hopefully getting others to come out and share their experiences as well and spread awareness”.