Where there’s no way, you can find a way if you really want to…

Guha’s story should inspire all of us who give up without a fight, a struggle, whether against cancer or defeat in any form. We have so many tools at our disposal today, thanks to incredibly powerful social media on the Internet,

What do you do when you are facing a lack of insurance to help pay medical bills and stage four cancer? You fight back, tooth and nail. You promise yourself that you will put everything you have to that fight.

That’s what Arijit Guha, an Indian American did when faced with a diagnosis of a stage four colon cancer. He was just 30, back from a trip to India when he fell sick with abdominal pains. He thought it was a bug he caught in India but turned out it was cancer.

He had insurance just like other Americans but soon found out it didn’t cover all of his treatment. Stage four cancer waits for no one - Guha needed treatment fast. But Guha was made of sterner stuff and vowed to fight back, using social media and the Internet.

In today’s digitally wired world, there is no one and no organization that you cannot reach via social networks. Guha turned to Twitter and other social media to drive his point home about his - and the predicament of millions of other Amercians who would be forced to give up life saving treatment that was not covered by insurance.

Social network campaign

Guha’s campaign worked - the CEO of his insurance company, himself a former paramedic and a father to a cancer stricken child, twittered Guha back to say that the company would pay every penny of Guha’s medical bills.

The story of the courageous Indian America caught media attention and soon, Guha ad his successful social network campaign that brought results was featured on networks and the Internet.

Guha has so far had a colostomy, conventional chemotherapy, the removal of his gall bladder and a heated chemo bath of the lining of his stomach. All the while, medical bills have increased.

But he is determined to fight back - having won the first round. "I take it day by day," he says , "It's quite likely that I'll have chemo again if (the cancer) pops up again. But I feel really good and I'm looking good. I am younger and can respond better to treatment."

Guha’s story should inspire all of us who give up without a fight, a struggle, whether against cancer or defeat in any form.

Insurance bureaucracy

We have so many tools at our disposal today, thanks to incredibly powerful social media on the Internet. You Tube, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Blogger and other sites empower the individual like never before. You can use any one of those platforms to go global within minutes and to make sure your case is heard loud and clear. In Guha’s case, he had to fight battles on more than one front. The cancer on one hand, in an already advanced stage and the insurance bureaucracy on the other. He fought both battles successfully - his attitude towards the cancer had already won him the battle, in my opinion.

Too many of us give up on a cancer and prepare for an eventual loss. Yet those who have the desire to fight back often see good results.

No battle is really lost until you have fought it on all fronts, as Guha so successfully did. He could have given up, he could have told himself he would eventually die - after all, it was Stage IV cancer and what hope did he have? But he was made of sterner stuff than that.

There is a Guha in each of us - if we only know and are able to find that person. We could fight battles with a level of strength and conviction we didn’t even know we had. It is up to us discover that person within us.