Naga basketeer returns to court just months after beating cancer

Menuse-O Max Khieya
Kohima, Sep. 7 (EMN): No victory is as great as beating cancer for Thejangulie Mekro, a promising 23-year-old Naga basketball player and student of Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, a deemed university in Chennai.

Mekro, who was trained at Europe Basketball Academy in Barcelona, Spain, in 2017 and 2019, returned to the court to instill hope in the people, especially those battling dreaded diseases.

Donning jersey number 22, the cager was part of the Kohima district squad that clinched the men’s basketball championship title in the recently concluded Nagaland Olympic and Paralympic Games 2022.

Speaking to Eastern Mirror, Mekro recounted how he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in January after being rushed to St. John’s Medical College Hospital in Bengaluru while playing for Sathyabama Institute in the south zone inter-university men’s basketball tournament at Christ University this year.

He joined Sathyabama Institute with a full scholarship under games and sports. Prior to that, he had undergone basketball trials on the advice of Prasanna Jayshankar, former captain of Indian women’s basketball team, after he passed Class 12 from Science College Jotsoma, Kohima, in first division.

Halfway through the tournament in Bengaluru, Mekro developed severe chest pain and collapsed during a practice session before being rushed to the St. John’s Medical College Hospital in the city.

“I was diagnosed with cancer in the month of January this year and I was under intense chemotherapy for five months,” informed Mekro who hails from Viswema village.

As his university qualified for the All India Inter-University Men’s Basketball Tournament, the six-foot tall shooting guard was again shifted to Apollo Hospital in Chennai to be bedridden until being declared cancer-free in May this year.

“Basically, everybody believes that once we get cancer, there is no chance of surviving, so when I was diagnosed, that was on my mind,” said Mekro who started playing basketball at the age of eight, represented Nagaland in the Senior National Basketball Championship in Gujarat in 2019, and selected to represent Europe Basketball Academy for international tournaments in Belgium and France in 2019 before his visa extension was declined.

He said cancer shattered his dream of becoming a professional basketball player.

However, a flicker of hope glimmered on a dejected basketeer when he started seeking divine intervention to release him from the grip of the cancer during his treatment.

“I started getting closer and closer to God,” he shared, terming his illness as a ‘blessing in disguise’.

“I feel like I am more blessed to have come to know God better through the situation,” he said.

“I really thought I had no chance of surviving, so I began praying a lot,” he shared, narrating how he was encouraged by the medical personnel, including his family members, that he could be cured from cancer.

“Halfway through the treatment, I started believing that I would overcome the sickness. I made up my mind that it is something you just can’t panic in this kind of situation but to fight through it,” he said. “I decided to fight, came through it and by God’s grace, I came out of it (cancer) successfully”.

While undergoing treatment in Chennai, his teammates and coaches from his university donated and arranged around 35 units of blood for him.

Mekro, the second youngest of four siblings, shared how he was overwhelmed with emotions when he was finally declared cancer-free by his doctor at Apollo hospital on May 15.

“I was very much in disbelief and honestly very emotional; and the first thing that came to my mind was to thank God and my family who took very good care of me,” he recalled.

“Recovering from cancer was the biggest accomplishment in my life because it was bigger than anything else; bigger than any victory,” said Mekro, whose favourite sportsperson is Kobe Bryant, the renowned basketball player who unfortunately passed away in a helicopter crash in 2020.

After defeating cancer, he worked hard to get back his footing to be a part of the winning team to lift the Nagaland Olympics 2002 men’s basketball trophy.

The cancer survivor played for Kohima and went on to win gold by defeating five districts during the course of the competition.

“I was in disbelief for two days!” he said on lifting the title at IG Stadium in Kohima. “All my close ones were very happy and they all witnessed the game on YouTube.”

“It (victory) means a lot to me because everyone was so concerned. As much as I was happy, it was also a very big achievement for them. So, we all shared the victory together,” he said.

However, the road to lifting the trophy was not a cakewalk. Post recovery from cancer, he trained personally for two months before undergoing another training session with the team for 20 days in Kohima ahead of the Olympic Games.

The affliction from cancer was so crippling that it made him unable to walk initially.

“I was very unhealthy, so I had to begin from scratch and I started from walking,” he said on his exercise routine prior to participating in the game.

‘After I got sick, I thought I would never be able to play basketball again, but gradually, I started to focus and improve my health,’ he said.

Now, the aspiration of becoming a professional athlete is “slowly coming back again”, said the promising basketball player who still takes blood test at regular intervals based on the recommendation of his doctor. “Right now I am just focusing on my health,” he said.

On getting back to shape after being halted for five months by the life-threatening malady and going on to win a state title, he said “people began deepening their faith while coming closer to God”. “It is big thing for me as I began to know more about the love and power of God that way,” he said.

While acknowledging Dr. Ramanan SG and his team of doctors at Apollo hospital for taking good care of him during the “most difficult time” of his life, Mekro has a message for those battling cancer- that the dreadful disease is “conquerable” with faith in God and modern medicine.

“With God everything is possible. Have faith in God. And never lose hope on bad days. There has been incredible advancement in medical science,” he said.

He also urged the young people not to give up on the dreams they want to pursue and put faith in God. “If it’s the right thing to do, then don’t listen to the negative things that people say,” he added.

Asserting that failures in life are nothing compared to falling sick and losing loved ones, he reminded not to inculcate the habit of blaming God for failing in life, “because at the end of the day, it’s all about living a good life and getting to spend time with our family members as  those small things should be appreciated.”