Costly treatment is an undeniable burden for most people in this agriculturally rich but poverty stricken region. For them, the government assistance under the Chief Minister's Cancer Relief Fund scheme is only a temporary solution. When medicines cost almost 20,000 rupees ($400) per month, families are often left to make difficult decisions.
Part of that price tag comes from lack of regulation and oversight. Some pharmacies in the region were charging more than ten times the original price for certain cancer-related drugs, according to a private investigation by the Bhai Ghaniya Cancer Roko Sewa Society, a local nongovernmental organization.
"We focus on poor patients," said Kultar Singh, vice president of the group. "We started this NGO because people were being overcharged and we were fed up with the politics."
Their efforts have proven fruitful. Last year the team wrote a letter to the chief justice of Punjab's high court, prompting them to hold the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority accountable for 46 anti-cancer drugs that are supposed to be affordable. In May, the Punjab government rolled out a plan to provide subsidized medicines to cancer patients at public hospitals.
Without that support, money can prove a harsh limitation.
Heeding a relative's suggestion, Kaur said her family first visited a private hospital in Ludhiana, where they were quoted approximately $20,000 for her mother's blood cancer treatment - a large amount for the middle class farming family.
"My mom said she didn't want such an expensive treatment," Kaur said of her mother's decision. "They told us there was a 35 percent chance she would stay alive."
The family then consulted a homeopathic doctor, who prescribed a range of natural medicines. But Kaur said her mother's health quickly deteriorated and they were forced to admit her to a government-subsidized local hospital without regular cancer specialists. Within a matter of days she caught an infection and passed away before she could receive further treatment - leaving Kaur and her younger brother, 15-year-old Manjinder, without one parent.
Kultar Singh said many families who are fighting cancer also lack the education and awareness they need to protect themselves. His NGO is trying to educate communities at the grassroots level.
"People fear the word cancer and it's like a taboo," he said. "There's a myth in the village that with this disease you're bound to die. At first, instead of going to doctors, they go to shamans and traditional healers."
Meanwhile, Thakur, the lead researcher, said any real solution to the problem with require accessible clean water and a change in industrial practices, rather than simply treating the symptoms of what has become a toxic environment.
Until then, families like Kaur's will be left to wonder if there was any way to prevent what happened to a loving wife and mother.
"She was really good. She sewed her own clothes, she was always thinking about her children," Kaur said, remembering her mother as tears escaped from her eyes. "She never got tired."
