Mumbai is home to some of India’s most important paediatric oncology hospitals. Tata Memorial Hospital, Wadia Hospital, SRCC Children’s Hospital, and ACTREC together treat thousands of children with cancer every year – from Mumbai itself, but also from across Maharashtra and from distant states where specialist paediatric oncology care simply does not exist.
Alongside these hospitals, a network of NGOs provides the support that medical systems alone cannot: nutrition, accommodation, financial assistance, education, counselling, and emotional care. For families navigating a child’s cancer diagnosis in Mumbai, knowing what exists and what each organisation actually does, can make a significant difference.
Here is a verified, category-by-category overview of six organisations working in this space in Mumbai.
Nutrition – Cuddles Foundation
Cuddles Foundation is India’s leading paediatric cancer nutrition NGO, working across 50 hospitals in 17 states – with a strong Mumbai presence at Tata Memorial Hospital, Wadia Hospital, and SRCC Children’s Hospital. Its FoodHeals™ Program places trained paediatric oncology nutritionists directly inside hospital wards, providing personalised nutritional assessment, customised diet plans, in-meals, hot meals, nutritional supplements, and monthly ration bundles to children and families throughout treatment – entirely free of charge.
In 2025-26, Cuddles Foundation supported over 20,277 children nationally and conducted over 2,85,700 counselling sessions. An independent Social Return on Investment assessment by Crisil Intelligence found that every rupee donated to FoodHeals™ generates ₹2.63 of social value. Cuddles Foundation is 80G certified, holds the National Award for Child Welfare (2015-16), has had its research findings cited in BMJ Global Health, and publishes a full annual impact report, making it one of the most transparently accountable organisations working in this space.
Accommodation – St. Jude India ChildCare Centres
For the large number of families who travel from villages and small towns across India to access cancer treatment in Mumbai, the city presents an immediate practical crisis: where do they stay? Treatment for childhood cancer can last up to two years, during which the child is often an outpatient – not admitted to the hospital, but not well enough to travel home between cycles. Clean, safe, affordable accommodation near a Mumbai cancer hospital is beyond the reach of most of these families.
St. Jude India ChildCare Centres founded in 2006 exists to solve exactly this problem. They provide free-of-cost, hygienic accommodation and holistic support to children with cancer and their families, including cooking facilities, transport to and from hospital, counselling for children and parents, and educational and recreational activities. They operate multiple centres in Mumbai near Tata Memorial Hospital (Parel) and ACTREC (Kharghar, Navi Mumbai), and nationally across 68+ centres in cities including Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Varanasi, and Guwahati. Importantly, St. Jude India does not provide financial assistance for treatment costs. Their focus is exclusively on accommodation and the wraparound support that keeps families stable and present during a long treatment journey.
Holistic Support at Tata Memorial Hospital – ImPaCCT Foundation
ImPaCCT – which stands for Improving Paediatric Cancer Care and Treatment – is the official paediatric foundation of Tata Memorial Hospital, established in October 2010 and administered by the hospital’s Paediatric Oncology Department. It is unique among the organisations on this list because it operates entirely from within TMH itself – making it the first point of contact for holistic non-medical support for the approximately 4,000 new paediatric cancer cases TMH sees every year.
ImPaCCT’s support begins on Day 1 of a child’s registration at TMH and covers financial, social, and psychological dimensions simultaneously. On the financial side, it raises and disburses funds for children whose families cannot afford treatment. On the social and psychological side, it runs monthly parent education meetings where families are counselled on cancer and treatment; creative workshops for children to express emotions; birthday celebrations for every child undergoing treatment; annual events on Childhood Cancer Day; joyrides, movie outings, and picnics; and outdoor camps twice a year to help children reintegrate into society after treatment ends.
Psychosocial and Emotional Support – V Care Foundation
Founded in 1994 by cancer survivor Vandana Gupta, V Care Foundation provides emotional support, counselling, financial assistance, and palliative care to cancer patients and their families with a particularly strong presence near Tata Memorial Hospital in Parel, Mumbai. V Care’s core programme is counselling: helping patients and caregivers who are overwhelmed and anxious at diagnosis to find clarity, support, and a sense of community.
How to Access This Support
Most of these organisations work in complementary rather than overlapping ways. A family whose child is being treated at Tata Memorial Hospital, for example, may simultaneously receive nutrition support from Cuddles Foundation, accommodation from St. Jude India, financial support from ImPaCCT and emotional support from V Care – all at the same hospital or nearby. One does not need to navigate this alone or approach each organisation separately. For families navigating this, the best starting point is usually the treating hospital’s social worker, who knows the local support landscape and can connect them to the right organisation at the right time.
Contact Cuddles Foundation: team@cuddlesfoundation.com
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