In January 2014, actor Emraan Hashmi’s world changed with four words from his wife: their four-year-old son, Ayaan, had blood in his urine.What followed was a diagnosis no parent is ever prepared for.It was found that he was suffering from Wilms’ tumour, a rare childhood kidney cancer. Doctors named it stage one, which meant that there was a good chance of recovery, but that did not soften the shock for a family suddenly living inside a hospital routine of tests, surgery, and chemotherapy.Ayaan lost a kidney to the disease and spent months undergoing treatment that would exhaust even an adult, let alone a four-year-old who didn’t fully understand why he was there.Years later, Hashmi wrote a book, ‘The Kiss of Life’ about that period and spoke about it publicly as well, including during an appearance on a Karamveer special episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati season 11, where he revealed a beautiful and heartfelt theatrical trick he and his wife used to get their son to eat during the hardest stretch of treatment.It was only becoming a superhero- the Batman for Emraan Hashmi that helped solve his son’s nutritional problem during the course of the treatment.
Food became the biggest daily battle during the most difficult stretch of Emraan Hashmi’s son’s chemotherapy
Once treatment began, the family learned quickly that nutrition was central to helping Ayaan’s body cope with chemotherapy. Oncologists suggest that a child’s immune system needs strong nutritional support to withstand repeated rounds of treatment while undergoing chemotherapy. But getting a scared, exhausted four-year-old to eat inside a hospital room is its own battle. His son, Ayaan, began throwing objects in the hospital room and having tantrums refusal to eat food; all of it became a part of the routine. Eventually, the usual parental coaxing simply stopped working.ID@undefined Caption not available.ID@undefined Caption not available.
The Batman trick that helped Emraan Hashmi keep up with his son’s feeding habits during treatment
So Hashmi and his wife, Parveen, devised a plan, she saved her husband’s number on Ayaan’s device under the name “Batman,” with a superhero photo attached. Hashmi would then step outside the hospital room and call his son as the caped crusader, urging him to eat.Because Ayaan adored Batman, he rarely refused. During his appearance on Kaun Banega Crorepati’s Karamveer special, which aired as part of season 11 in November 2019, Hashmi opened up about the ordeal, narrating this excerpt to host Amitabh Bachchan, while explaining what it was like during his son’s chemotherapy journey after his son had been diagnosed with cancer five years earlier.ID@undefined Caption not available.ID@undefined Caption not available.
The story eventually got the ending every parent hopes for
Sharing the news publicly in 2019, Hashmi wrote on his social media account, “Today, five years after his diagnosis, Ayaan has been declared cancer-free”, adding that hope and belief go a long way in fighting the disease.