Jesu Raj’s Story

Kathy is privileged to know and to have become friends with a young man called Jesu Raj.  She first met him in 1999 at St Luke’s Leprosy Hospital in Peikulam, south India. This is his story, told in his own words:

“My name is Jesu Raj.   When I was 12 years of age a patch appeared on my body. I showed it to my mother. She thought it was caused by a poisonous insect bite and ignored it.

After a few years the patch became bigger. More patches appeared all over my body. Again I reported it to my parents. They took me to a native doctor. He gave me some herbal treatment, but there was no improvement.

After some months the patches became thicker. My ear lobes also became thick. My hands and feet swelled up. The people in my village and my class mates started to call me a “Leper”. In my class I had to sit separately from the other students. I became too ashamed to go to school, and dropped out.

Eventually, our Parish Priest sent me to Peikulam where I was admitted to St Luke’s Leprosarium and treated with Multi Drug Therapy. Initially I suffered a severe and painful reaction but finally the complications were brought under control and I became fully cured.

All this time I was tutored by a special teacher, who was also a patient at St Luke’s, and I passed 8th Standard School Examination as a private candidate. After I completed my treatment I enrolled in the nearby mission school and passed 12th Standard with high marks.

St Luke’s Leprosarium sponsored me for a Physiotherapy Technician course near Vellore, a world famous leprosy training centre. The Leprosy Mission met all my expenses for the training. Through Lord Jesus’s grace I passed the examination with First Class honours and then joined Peikulam Leprosarium as a Physiotherapy Technician where I have worked ever since.

I will be forever thankful to St Luke’s for the treatment I received which cured me of leprosy. Please look at my photograph before and after the Multi Drug Treatment – you will not believe your eyes.”

JESU RAJ BEFORE AND AFTER TREATMENT FOR LEPROSY