All six radiotherapy machines of the NICRH have been out of order for 19 days, depriving over 200 cancer patients of their scheduled therapy every day.

More than 12 years ago, the National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital (NICRH) authorities had purchased eight high-end ventilator machines for its Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

For months, Halima Begum shuttled between her hometown Barisal and Dhaka several times for radiotherapy at the capital's National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital (NICRH).