On November 10, 2022, family, friends and hospital staff gathered to unveil a plaque to honour the memory and legacy of Savitri Ahuja (1934 – 2020), a dedicated teacher and family matriarch whose life was a reflection of the Hindu concept of selfless service. The plaque recognized a gift from her estate made by her two grandsons, both physicians at Trillium Health Partners, to support advanced cancer care at the hospital, a fitting way to honour a woman who devoted herself to giving back to improve the lives of others and who fought a long and courageous battle with cancer.
In 1974, when Savitri was 40, her family immigrated to Canada from India to provide their three children with a better life. In New Delhi, Savitri had been a dedicated and successful teacher in an all-girls high school, where the cost was often a barrier for families to educate their children. She would visit their homes to try and convince their parents to let them return and, many times, Savitri would pay her students’ fees out of her own pocket, with funds from jobs she worked on the side.
In Canada, Savitri’s teaching credentials were not recognized, so she took a minimum wage job as a cleaner in a small clothing factory in Toronto’s garment district, working her way up to a senior role while studying for her teacher’s and master’s degrees at York University. She started her teaching journey in Canada as a substitute teacher, waking every weekday at 5:30 a.m. hoping to get an assignment and then travelling by transit to get to the school before ultimately landing a full-time position she loved at a primary school.
Her life was shaped by a love of family, respect for education, a huge capacity for hard work and above all by the Hindu virtue of “sevā,” selfless service to others. She made friends everywhere she went and made people laugh with her quick wit. Savitri was also devoted to her growing family, often driving some distance to look after her grandchildren after school.
Later in life Savitri struggled with a series of health issues: enlarged lymph nodes, breast cancer in her 70s and ovarian cancer in her 80s. For the latter she had ongoing support from Trillium Health Partners where she was well cared for by a multidisciplinary team – she loved her oncologist, Dr. Melissa Chan. Savitri’s entire family, including grandsons Dr. Shaan Chugh and Dr. Shiv Khosla, would often take her to appointments and witnessed her positive outlook, appreciation for hospital staff and ability to make others smile.
Following her death at the age of 86, the family chose to make a gift from her estate to support the hospital’s new HyperArc, an innovative cancer technology that delivers highly precise radiosurgical treatment for patients with multiple brain metastases, improving their quality of life. For Savitri’s son Samir Ahuja, the gift was a natural choice because it echoes his mother values: it’s a leading edge technology that solves a difficult problem, just as she was progressive and always keen to offer practical solutions to life’s challenges.
Samir, Dr. Chugh and Dr. Khosla and her extended family know that Savitri would be honoured by the gift and the plaque with her name since, despite her humble beginnings, she is leaving a legacy that will inspire others to acts of selfless service, benefiting countless cancer patients in the decades to come.
Inspired by Savitri’s family’s gift? If you are interested in making a legacy gift, please contact Lindsay Murray, Manager, Philanthropy at 416-271-1115 or lindsay.murray@thp.ca.