What would you do if someone close to you needed quality healthcare to face a chronic illness but lacked the resources to support their journey?
For Aishna Shah, a recent graduate of our Master’s in Sustainable Business & Innovation, this question became deeply personal. Not only did Aishna excel in her studies with resilience and dedication, but she also faced a profound challenge — her mother, Sonal Shah, was diagnosed with breast cancer and sadly passed away near the end of the programme. During her mother’s courageous battle, Aishna came to an important realisation: while her mother had access to healthcare, millions, particularly in the Global South, lack the essential resources needed to confront chronic illnesses such as cancer. Determined to turn grief into purpose, she channelled her experience into a mission – founding SheHeals: Sonal Shah Remembrance Fund with her family to help low-income individuals facing chronic illness access holistic healthcare, bringing hope and healing to those who cannot afford medical care.
This is Aishna’s journey and her mother’s enduring legacy.
Could you start by telling us a bit about your journey? How did you manage to balance your studies and personal challenges during the Master’s programme? What helped you through that time?
My mother was diagnosed shortly before the start of the Master’s programme. Despite the immense challenges my parents faced following her breast cancer diagnosis, they wholeheartedly encouraged me to pursue my studies at EADA.
My parents taught me that education could equip me with the skills needed to create a meaningful impact in the world. Although it was incredibly difficult to move to another country while my mother was unwell, I knew it was the right choice to honour my parents’ selfless spirit. I used my mother’s diagnosis as a source of strength and motivation to push through the difficult year ahead, wanting to make her proud.
While the year was challenging in many ways, three key pillars really helped me balance my studies with personal challenges:
- EADA’s support and understanding: My course director, Federica Saluzzo, showed great empathy towards my situation, making adjustments that allowed me to fully engage in my studies while also travelling back to Switzerland to be with my mother during her treatment.
- The power of technology: Thanks to technological advances, I was able to stay connected with my family, keep in touch over the phone, help with administrative tasks online, and keep them updated about my life in Barcelona.
- Motivation: My mother’s unwavering strength allowed her to move through her battle with a sense of peace, love, and serenity. I used her strength as my guiding compass to get through an intense year of learning and growth. I was fortunate to have her watch our live EADA graduation ceremony online briefly before she passed away.
How did your experience with your mother’s illness shape your perspective on healthcare access and inspire you to take action?
Taking a step back, my perspective on inequality and poverty has been deeply influenced by my family’s background. Growing up, we engaged with NGOs supporting low-income communities across India, Thailand, and Hong Kong. A recurring issue we observed was lack of healthcare access. I saw first-hand how the high costs of treatment had devastating effects on individuals and society, with nearly 100 million people worldwide pushed into poverty due to catastrophic healthcare expenses. My mother’s diagnosis encouraged me to dive deeper into these healthcare inequalities. Though our experience was already immensely difficult, we realised that not having health insurance would have created even more severe challenges. This realisation inspired us to take action; and my mother’s spirit of endless compassion and care for others ultimately confirmed that we wanted to make this a long-term endeavour.
Could you tell us more about the SheHeals Fund and its main objectives?
The SheHeals: Sonal Shah Remembrance Fund was established to support the provision of life-saving, holistic healthcare to low-income individuals and families facing the challenges of chronic illness. Our geographic focus is the Global South, where the lack of access to holistic healthcare can also have ripple effects on people’s livelihoods.
Our objectives:
- Provide Financial Support for Treatment: Offer essential financial assistance to individuals in lower-income countries facing chronic illnesses.
- Provide Health-Related Wellbeing and Prevention: Support programs that enhance overall health and wellbeing during chronic illness, such as nutrition programs, counselling, adequate housing during treatment, awareness and prevention efforts, etc.
Have you faced any challenges in launching the fund, and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge in launching the fund was deciding where to focus our support. Access to healthcare is a vast issue with endless needs. We narrowed our focus to supporting low-income individuals (and their families) with chronic illnesses (e.g., cancer, cataracts, diabetes, blood disorders). This focus has enabled us to allocate our funds effectively and partner with organisations already doing impactful work in this space.
How can people who are moved by your story and work support the fund in tangible ways?
We understand that donating money is not feasible for everyone. We warmly welcome any donation, whether €1, €50, or €500, as all contributions can make a meaningful impact. For those unable to donate, there are many other ways to support SheHeals:
- Organising independent fundraising activities for SheHeals.
- Supporting us as a digital designer (logo and web design) or marketer to help communicate our vision and mission.
- Providing monitoring and evaluation support to help us measure our impact.
- Assisting as a fundraising advisor to broaden our strategies beyond individual donations (looking at corporate, grant and government funding).
- Helping manage an online shop or second-hand e-commerce to sell my mother’s clothes and shoes (with all proceeds going directly to the fund).
How do you plan to use the funds raised? Are there any specific projects or services you want to prioritise with this support?
Thanks to generous support, we raised over CHF18,000 (approximately €19,125, or $20,795) in 2023. So far, SheHeals has sponsored healthcare for numerous low-income individuals, covering breast cancer treatments, nutritional support, surgeries such as cataract operations, and staffing for organisations like Sanjeevani: Life Beyond Cancer in India.
Currently, we are raising our next round of funds for 2024, aiming to further expand our impact by year’s end. We plan to focus these funds on the African continent, where access to healthcare is often critically limited.
What impact do you hope the SheHeals Fund will achieve, both in the immediate and long term?
In the immediate term, SheHeals aims to alleviate the heavy burden chronic illness places on low-income families by covering treatment costs and supporting health and wellbeing needs, such as nutrition or housing during treatment.
In the long term, we hope to secure ongoing support from both small and large donors to aid countries in the Global South. We plan to broaden our geographic reach, as healthcare access is a widespread issue. We are also exploring ways to send excess medical equipment from hospitals in high-income countries to hospitals in the Global South where it is needed.
If you had one message for anyone looking to contribute to your cause or start their own initiative, what would it be?
For those considering contributing to our cause, I encourage you to skip a drink tonight and donate what you would have spent at the bar to SheHeals. Sacrificing a drink tonight could mean saving someone’s life. I also encourage you to take three minutes to close your eyes and imagine what your life would look like if you were diagnosed with a chronic illness but couldn’t access the healthcare you needed. What would you do?
If you’re considering starting your own initiative, my advice would be to ground it in something deeply personal. Passion driven by your own experiences creates an authenticity that will inspire and connect with others. Much of the support we’ve received has stemmed from the love people had for my mother and her profound compassion for her community.
Through SheHeals: Sonal Shah Remembrance Fund, Aishna Shah has transformed personal grief into a force for global good, striving to create a world where healthcare is not a privilege, but a fundamental right.
If you’d like to support the SheHeals Fund, please visit their GoFundMe page here or contribute via the Euro account below:
EU Bank Account:
Account Holder: Aishna Shah
BIC: TRWIBEB1XXX
IBAN: BE44967790460945
Bank Address: Wise, Rue du Trône 100, 3rd floor, Brussels, 1050, Belgium