BANGALORE, India and NEW DELHI, Oct. 12, 2022 — Zeus Agastya Krishna Banerjee was 6 years old when he met one of India’s most entertaining stars, Varun Dhawan.
A big fan of Varun’s inimitable style and street dancing skills, meeting the star himself was a dream come true. Zeus, now 11 is fighting against Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Zeus is unaware of his life-threatening condition and has been fighting the disease and its relapse for months.
Life is nothing but a collection of such moments and chance meetings that are cherished. For a star like Varun, it could have been just another fan moment, but the minute he heard of Zeus’ fight he recorded a video to cheer up the spirits of this fierce fighter. In the video posted on the Instagram page created for Zeus, @save_zeus, Varun says, “Hey Zeus, sending you lots of love, I am sure you are going to get all your strength back soon and I can’t wait for you to get better so we can hang out.” Varun’s gesture is sure to be a ray of sunshine amidst the cloudy skies that loom over Zeus, his family, and friends.
“On Thursday 6th October I made a desperate plea for help on the crowdfunding platform Ketto to raise the 5 Crores that are needed for Zeus’ treatment through a procedure called CAR T-cell therapy. Thanks to the cosmos, my appeal got noticed by a company started by my former students and many others – who took it upon themselves to help the cause and rallied their networks to help me,” says Arundhati Banerji, Zeus’ mother.
With them pushing the cause, stars on earth like Kriti Kulhari, Yusuf & Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Veda Krishnamurthy, Harsha Bhogle, Aakash Chopra, Jatin Sapru, Gurusharan (Guru) Randhawa Papa CJ, Manjari Fadnis harnessed their social media platforms to reach out to their hundreds and thousands of supporters via appeals to donate – a feat that no number of personal calls or WhatsApp messages could achieve as quickly. Influencers like Nikita Datta, Rahul Jaisingh, and Akshay Mhatre jumped in as well. Zeus’ parents are immensely grateful for the support the campaign has received so far. However, there is a mile to cover, and Zeus is counting on stars both in the sky and on earth. Every share, every forward, every rupee will make a difference. Please consider donating and sharing the campaign https://www.ketto.org/fundraiser/my-son-is-fighting-for-his-life-and-we-need-your-support-to-save-him-701752
“Zeus is a remarkable child with a naughty smile and a warrior. He loves to read, share stories make music, and watch movies, especially about superheroes. And superheroes are what he needs now – to come together and help support the fundraising campaign. Zeus, unaware – is doing his bit in this fight to stay alive – we as a community must do ours. During the pandemic, we lost millions of lives to scarcity, and we as a community promised to be in it together and not have these series of unfortunate events repeat. Please come together once again and help save our son. Quoting one of Zeus’ favorite books ‘Harry Potter’ help him be the boy that shall live,” adds Arundhati.
