New Delhi: A charitable hospital in the national capital is providing treatment to cancer patients using ayurveda and yoga along with dietary and lifestyle changes.

Ahead of World Cancer Day on February 4, the founder of Ayurvedic Cancer Treatment Hospital, located in West Punjabi Bagh area, said the facility raises awareness on combating the disease and many patients help in spreading its name through word of mouth as well.

"Many patients come to us after having lost all hope in allopathic treatment. We use a four-pronged approach - lifestyle and food habit changes, ayurvedic medicines and yoga," its founder-president Atul Singhal said.

Asked about the efficacy of ayurvedic medicine on cancer, he said, "Our patients are our biggest testimonies. They feel the benefit and tell it to others, or make videos and post those online."

"For medicine, we use 'panchgavyas', mixture of five products of cow, and we use yoga to aid in recovering.

"We change their lifestyle and food habits and ask them to forego some of them for treatment. So, instead of wheat we tell them to eat barley, black pepper instead of red chilli, jaggery instead of sugar, etc," Singhal said.

The 52-year-old said he started the facility after losing his mother to cancer in 2011.

"My mother battled cancer for three years and finally succumbed to it. So, I wanted to do something about it and I have faith in our ancient medicinal system of ayurveda. So, in 2013, we first started Ayurvedic Cancer Treatment and Research Centre which became Ayurvedic Cancer Treatment Hospital in 2015," he said.

Run by a trust, the 20-bed facility has three permanent 'vaidyas' (doctors) and a staff of about 15 people for other ancillary jobs, Singhal said.

"Irrespective of a patient or his other family's economic status, we offer treatment based on just a token sum of Rs 11,000. If a patient is poor, we ask for less amount or none if they are very poor. Our idea is to keep it a charitable cause and not a commercial one," Singhal said.

The founder of the hospital said, the facility is run under a trust which has 21 trustees, including members from well-known trading families.

"We also get funds from philanthropists and some patients, after treatment, or their family members give some endowment which helps in running the hospital," he said.

Singhal said patients come from all parts of the country, especially from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, and even Jammu and Kashmir. He claimed that some patients also come from abroad.

He said the token sum is applicable for 11 days only, and after that Rs 1,000 is charged per day, as the number of beds are limited beds.

"We are planning to expand and make it a 100-bed facility," Singhal said, adding, two union ministers have visited the facility so far.

World Cancer Day, organised by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and celebrated each year on February 4, is an opportunity to rally the international community to end the injustice of preventable suffering from cancer.

This year's theme, 'We can, I can' acknowledges that everyone has the capacity to address the cancer burden, according to WHO.

(With inputs from PTI)