Our Survivors

Survivors Against TB is a platform that consists of survivors and advocates who are ordinary people with extraordinary strength. Having fought and defeated various forms of TB, SATB provides survivors, advocates, and experts a platform to come together to ideate and advocate on key issues that affect patients and communities. They come up with suggestions that India urgently needs to implement. These ideas and suggestions have global relevance and can be implemented in high-burden countries across the world.. Our approach is simple - TB patients need more than just medicines. They need support, guidance, acceptance and care with dignity.

Deepti Chavan

Patient Advocate, MDR TB Survivor

When I first wanted to speak about TB, people advised me otherwise. But I think for me it was those six years of treatment that had to be communicated.

Saurabh Rane

Development Professional, MDR TB Survivor

I was just another medical student rushing through classes to keep myself in the rat race of life until I started coughing and everything changed.

Arun Singh Rana

Public Health Professional, TB Survivor

I lost my father to TB. He underwent diagnostic tests and was given medicines based on a vague diagnosis at a renowned private hospital.

Debshree Lokhande

Architect, XXDR TB Survivor

I was diagnosed with multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB at the first test. I was resistant to three of the four drugs in the standard 4-drug kit prescribed

Himanshu Patel

Operations Analyst, MDR TB Survivor

It was in April 2016 that I fell sick. I was coughing for three weeks. Fever would come and go and I had lost upto 4 kgs.

Diptendu Bhattacharya

Educator, MDR TB Survivor

It all started in December 2014. Diptendu had just qualified for CSIR NET, with a fantastic rank. He was certain of a bright and exciting future.

Sandhya Krishnan

Wellness Coach, TB Survivor

In 2011, I was a busy entrepreneur setting up my furniture store and a mother of two. The days were filled with moments of stress and exhaustion.

Keyuri Bhanushali

Copywriter, MDR TB Survivor

In November 2008, at the age of 26, I developed a persistent cough which needed immediate attention.

Manasi Khade

Photographer, XDR TB Survivor

A student at Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai and a freelance commercial photographer, I was diagnosed in 2013, at the age of 19, when I began coughing and losing weight.

Ritu Khattar

MBA Student, TB Survivor

Hopeful, optimistic and raring to go-that’s who I was. I always worked hard for securing admission in a good college, getting a good job, and being independent in life. While I did achieve these goals as I turned 20, life had some other plans for me.

Ashna Ashesh

MDR-TB Survivor, Patient Advocate, Lawyer

In March 2017, I was diagnosed with tuberculosis.I am a lawyer by training and was working as a graduate fellow at a university in Bangalore. Due to ineffective treatment my disease progressed and a few months later, in July 2017, I was diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB).

Bulbul Sharma

TB Survivor, Teacher

The suspense was endless. After months of oscillating between a bad sinus infection and some form of cancer, my diagnosis of TB seemed decently placed, somewhere in the middle of the two extreme scenarios.