Some people walk into your life and quietly change it.

Akhilesh is that kind of person and he is love of my life.

I am Dipti Sharma, Akhilesh's wife, his caregiver, and the mother of our 17yearold son. I am writing to you today not just as someone who loves him, but as someone who has sat beside his hospital bed, held his hand through surgeries, and witnessed firsthand the extraordinary depth of his character and his will to live.

What I am about to share is urgent. Please read every word.

A Man Who Has Given Everything

For over 12 years, Akhilesh dedicated his career to cancer research, working to extend the lives of strangers, to ease suffering he would never personally profit from, to push medicine forward so that future generations might be spared the very disease he was quietly studying.

While he was saving others, his own body was waging war against him.

For years, Akhilesh has battled a serious, chronic health condition, enduring surgeries, hospitalizations, and powerful medications that would have broken most people. And yet, through every setback, every painful recovery, every dark night, he showed up. For me. For our son. For others.

He never complained. He just kept going.

In 2023, after rectal surgery, something remarkable happened: he began to heal. After years of suffering, a window of hope finally opened. Akhilesh landed a new position at a pharmaceutical company hard-won stability in a brutal job market. Life, at last, seemed to be turning a corner.

Then, just weeks ago, that window slammed shut.

The Diagnosis That Changes Everything

Akhilesh began bleeding again. A colonoscopy was performed. And the results delivered a blow that no family should ever have to receive:

Stage IV colorectal cancer.

The cancer is aggressive. It has already spread to his liver. Pathology describes it as a poorly differentiated malignancy one of the more difficult forms to treat. Doctors are urgently awaiting genetic testing results to determine whether targeted therapies may offer a fighting chance.

And there is more. CT scans have also revealed multiple compression fractures in his spine — the quiet, accumulated toll of years of illness and treatment on a body that has already endured so much.

This man, who spent his career fighting cancer for others, is now fighting it for his own life. And our teenage son is watching his father fight.

A Race Against Time and Bills

Here is the painful, practical reality:

Akhilesh is currently covered through my federal health insurance, but coverage has not yet fully kicked in, and the plan still requires thousands of dollars in out of pocket costs before it does. Cancer does not wait for deductibles to reset. Tumors do not pause for paperwork.

Every day of delay is a day the disease advances.

The financial burden bearing down on our family right now includes:

• Medical deductibles and out of pocket costs, so treatment can begin now, without delay

• Travel to cancer centers and specialist consultations, because the best care is rarely around the corner

• Lost wages during chemotherapy, surgeries, and recovery

• Potential surgeries on the rectum, liver, and spine — a multifront battle that demands everything

I am standing by my husband's side with everything I have. But no family should have to choose between paying rent and accessing lifesaving treatment. No child should have to watch his father suffer while his parents worry about bills.

Why I Am Asking You Personally

We did not want to ask for help.

It took real courage for us to allow this campaign to exist — because that is who we are. We carry our burdens with grace. We protect others from worry. We would rather struggle in silence than cause anyone inconvenience.

But I could not stay silent any longer. Not with my husband's life on the line. Not with my son watching. Not when I know there are people out there who, if they only knew, would want to help.

So I am asking. For Akhilesh. For our son. For our family.

What You Can Do Right Now

If you can give: please give today. Even $25 matters. Even $10 matters. Every dollar goes directly toward getting Akhilesh into treatment and keeping our family afloat during the hardest season of our lives.

If you cannot give: please share. Post this on Facebook. Text it to three friends. Forward it to your faith community, your neighborhood group, your coworkers. A single share can reach someone who has been waiting for exactly this opportunity to help.

And whatever you do: please pray. Pray for Akhilesh's strength and healing. Pray for our son, who needs his father. Pray for the endurance of our family as we face what lies ahead and that this community of caring people rises up to surround us with the love we would freely give to any of you.