In the quiet corridors of the Cancer Institute at Adyar in Chennai, Dr. Viswanathan Shanta made the hospital her home and cancer care her lifelong mission. Born on 11 March 1927 into a distinguished scientific family—her grand-uncle was the Nobel laureate Sir C.V. Raman and her uncle Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was another Nobel Prize winner—she chose medicine over other paths. After completing her MBBS in 1949 and later her MD in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Madras Medical College, she joined the fledgling Cancer Institute (WIA) in 1955, only a year after it had been founded by the pioneering Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy.

Working alongside Dr. S. Krishnamurthi, she helped transform a small 12-bed cottage hospital into one of India’s foremost comprehensive cancer centres. For more than six decades she lived on the campus, available to patients day and night. “No one should be turned away because they cannot pay,” she would insist, ensuring that a large proportion of patients received free or heavily subsidised treatment, boarding and lodging. She pioneered multidisciplinary care, fought for the recognition of medical oncology as a specialty in India, established paediatric oncology services, and helped create the country’s first organised cancer-control programmes and registries.

Her dedication earned her the Ramon Magsaysay Award for public service in 2005, which she dedicated to the Institute. The Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri in 1986, the Padma Bhushan in 2006 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2016. She served on the WHO Advisory Committee on Cancer and mentored generations of oncologists.

Dr. V. Shanta passed away on 19 January 2021 at the age of 93, still connected to the Institute she had served for a lifetime. From a young doctor who chose a struggling new hospital over a conventional career to the quiet force who made quality cancer care accessible to the poorest patients, her life remains a story of selfless service, institutional building and an unwavering belief that every life deserves the chance to fight cancer with dignity.