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Shooting

Shooter from West Bengal cuts hair on birthday to donate to cancer-affected patients

46-year-old Sujata Bhattacharya, who is a school teacher besides being a shooter, mountaineer and a cyclist, cuts her hair to donate it to cancer-affected patients.

Shooter Sujata Bhattacharya
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Shooter Sujata Bhattacharya

By

Md Imtiaz

Updated: 2 Sep 2021 2:16 PM GMT

On the occasion of her birthday, a shooter from West Bengal shaved off her hair to donate it for creating wigs for cancer patients.

Forty-six-year-old Sujata Bhattacharya is a physical education teacher at Jharagram's Sri Ramkrishna Sradapith Girl's Higher Secondary School. Though she is a resident of Balihati village of Medinipur district, she stays in a hostel in Jhargram to serve her professional duty.

Apart from being a teacher, Sujata took up shooting as a sport. Weeks ago, she finished in third place in a tournament hosted by Bengal Shooting Sports Academy. Apart from encouraging her students to be physically active, she helps them in sports and cultural aspects.

On Saturday, Sujata turned 46, and to celebrate the day, Sujata took up the noble gesture of cutting her hair and donating it to cancer-affected patients. In an interview with The Bridge, Sujata said "Whatever I did is something ordinary. I saw one of my students suffer from cancer at the age of 19. After undergoing chemotherapy, she lost all her hair. She broke down, and I felt there should be someone to give her mental strength. This was when I decided, I would dedicate my hairs to them."

Sujata took up shooting when the sport was not quite popular in the country. Despite limited access, she took up the sport under. "I was an athlete who competed in throwing events, I was learning athletics in a Medinipur-based club, where one of our coaches was also learning shooting. It is under his tutelage, I took up the sport. I took up learning air pistol from him."

Sujata did not have any formal training in shooting before that. After competing in pre-national levels, Sujata trained under former Arjuna awardee shooter Bhagirath Samai. She later competed in shooting nationals. Besides, she has also hands-on experience in

Sujata cut down all her hair and sent it to an organisation in Mumbai so that it is used for making wigs for cancer-affected patients.



Sujata has been practising shooting at the Joydeep Karmakar Shooting Academy for the last one year which was founded by the former Olympian shooter from Bengal. Karmakar wrote on his Facebook timeline, "We often see sportsperson do amazing things in their lives, and if that sportsperson is a teacher too and a philanthropist too.. it becomes great! We are proud of Sujata Bhattacharya who shaved her head & donated her long hair in solidarity with ailing cancer patients. We are also privileged to have her in our JKSA family. Take a bow Sujata di."

In an exclusive chat with Karmakar, he told The Bridge, "Sujata is a school teacher in Jhargram who does innumerable philanthropic work. She has a pretty long list of noble initiatives from feeding malnourished children to reaching out in relief work during natural calamities. Besides, she is a cyclist, a mountaineer and shooter. She joined our shooting academy last year, and she comes down from Medinipur to our academy to train, she deserves a lot of praise."

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