NH-24 good Samaritan in hospital, kin don’t have money for treatment

GHAZIABAD: She is the reason why you reached office on time every day, got to your daughter or son’s school without getting held up in traffic and kept an appointment.Dorris Francis was there every morning, rain, shine or smog, managing a chaotic intersection on NH-24 all by herself. Since Diwali, though, that ‘post’ has fallen vacant as a crippling stomach pain landed the 59-year-old in hospital. She was subsequently diagnosed with cancer “She is admitted at AIIMS and her condition is not good.

She has stomach cancer,” her husband, Victor, said on Monday.Theirs is a family of modest means, and Victor is worried about the cost of treatment. They have a small house in Ghaziabad’s Khora Colony, not far from the intersection where Dorris and Victor lost their 17-year-old daughter, Niki, to an accident in 2008.Dorris is not a cop but has since stood at the intersection, next to UP Gate, every day, vowing not to let another life end the same way. In an interview to TOI in 2014, she had said as much: “I don’t want anyone to meet the same fate and am doing my bit to ensure just that.”For many years, the police simply ignored Dorris, who became a familiar sight for motorists in her white salwar kameez and cap, stick in one hand and a whistle hung around her neck.