India, May 31 -- At just 18, Payal Kumari from Bihar is already defying the odds. Diagnosed with ovarian cancer as a teenager, her life was put on hold as she underwent rounds of intensive treatment at the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) in Mumbai. Today, she's not just a survivor. She is pursuing a BTech in computer science at the United Institute of Technology in Coimbatore, supported for three consecutive academic years by TMC's ImPaCCT Foundation. Her dream: to become a software engineer and help others find their footing after illness.

In another corner of Maharashtra, 23-year-old Raja Mohiuddin Shaikh, diagnosed with metastatic alveolar soft part sarcoma, is now in his final year of MBBS at Grant Medical College. Originally from Akola, ...