Sanjay Dutt opens up at length about his cancer journey, says ‘If I broke down, my family would break down, so I had to fight’ – Times of India

Sanjay Dutt was diagnosed with the stage 4 of lung cancer in August 2020 just when the pandemic had hit us. On Wednesday, Dutt was present at a hospital to speak about his cancer journey and treatment along with his sister Priya Dutt and the doctor who treated him.
When asked how he reacted when he discovered he has cancer, Sanjay revealed, “First of all, I was just discussing right now with my sister and the doctors that how do you realise that you have cancer? Because I just didn’t know about it. I had a back ache and was treated with hot water bottle and pain-killers until one day I couldn’t breathe. I was taken to the hospital but the thing was that the cancer news was not broken to me properly.”

Dutt revealed he was all alone at the hospital. “My wife, my family or my sisters, nobody was around me that time. I was all alone and suddenly this guy comes and tells me ‘you have cancer’. My wife was in Dubai so Priya came to me. My first reaction was that, once you hear something like this, your whole life reflects back at you. I have a history of cancer in my family. My mom died of pancreatic cancer, my wife (Richa Sharma) died of brain cancer. So, the first thing I said was that, I don’t want to take chemotherapy. If I’m supposed to die, I will just die but I don’t want any treatment.”
Sanjay further revealed that Rakesh Roshan suggested this doctor Sewanti Limaye to him and asked him to take treatment. Sanjay said he had to get stronger. “I saw my family break down around me and I decided one night that if I fall sick or if I break down, they will fall sick and break down. So, I decided to fight it.”

A pipe was put down Sanjay’s chest disclosed the actor but he challenged his doctor that it will come out in two weeks and it did. The doctor revealed she had hammered him with complete dosage of chemotherepay and yet he would excercise for two hours every day. Sanjay also requested his doctor if he could go and shoot. “6 hours he was hanging upside down on an harness, right after chemotherapy,” reveals his doctor.

But it was the actor’s spirit to fight back that helped him recover. Meanwhile, Sanjay revealed he didn’t want to hide anything from the world. “I didn’t want to lie about the Cancer. People don’t want to make it public and not tell people due to many factors. But I chose to speak about it, at the cost of my career so that I could help people in need,” expressed Sanjay.

On work front, Dutt was last seen in ‘Shamshera’ along side Ranbir Kapoor. But he’s still remembered for his performance as ‘Adheera’ in ‘KGF Chapter 2’ before that.