Adithya Bhatena remembered the three years his mother, Sarala, was stricken with kidney cancer.
“She was 42 years old when she was diagnosed,” Bhatena said. “Because she was so young she really fought.”
Bhatena, the owner of the Buy-Rite Liquor Store on Manila Avenue in downtown Jersey City, saw his mom lose her fight in 2006 at the age of 45.
He has since 2008 held an annual “Super Sampler” fundraiser benefit in her honor, with proceeds going to a fund to help cancer patients at the Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, on the campus of his alma mater Rutgers University. This year’s fundraiser is being held at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City on May 8 from 7 to 11 p.m.
“My family had great insurance, but we still racked up bills up to $100,000.” – Adithya Bhatena
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Bhatena is looking to raise $10,000 or even exceed that amount as it will add to the money already raised in the previous two years the benefit has been held. After a certain amount is raised, the fund will then bear his mother’s name.
But more importantly, it will add more dollars that can be accessed by other families struggling with the burden of health costs that come from financing treatment for a loved one suffering from some kind of cancer.
Although those with insurance may have some treatments covered, it often has a limit.
“My family had great insurance, but we still racked up bills up to $100,000 that we were able to pay,” Bhatena said. “There are a lot of families that are not so fortunate.”
Remembering Mom
Kidney cancer is one of the less common forms of cancer, accounting for 2 percent of all cancers in the world. The National Cancer Institute estimates in 2009 in the U.S. there were 49,096 new cases and 11,033 deaths as the result of kidney cancer.
As for its victims, it can have a devastating effect.
Sarala Bathena ended up losing a kidney while suffering with a rare form of the cancer and undergoing the treatments to fight it.
Adithya, along with his brother and father, recalled the treatments took place because the family chose “to be aggressive.”
“We wanted to do whatever we could to save her,” Bhatena said. He said she was in the “prime of her life” running the family’s liquor store in Jackson, N.J. while raising her sons.
The Bhatena family owns the Buy-Rite chain of liquor stores, which operates in 11 counties in New Jersey.
Trying to help her meant seeking out various radiation treatments, and seeing the side effects, which Bhatena said were “tough” to watch.
But this period in his family’s life was important, as he saw it, in that they were able to see how other families had difficulties paying for their family members who were being treated at hospitals.
“My family is proud to see this fund happen to help others,” Bhatena said. “This has given
me the most satisfaction in my life.”
For more information on the benefit, call (201) 239-1200 or visit www.buyriteliquor.com.
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.