meerut kanika bhardwaj has been a bright student since she was a child but life had some other plans for her she was in class ix when she was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus sle an autoimmune disease in which the bodys immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue of the body on heavy medication ever since she suffered a psychosis stroke just days before her preboards it took such a toll on her health that she stopped recognizing her family her parents were worried because their otherwise brilliant daughter had even forgotten most of what she had studied for exams i had to start from scratch i couldnt recall basics of my subjects but still kept working hard in fact all i was expecting was about 50 marks but i am really happy that i could score 784said kanika a student of meerut public girls school west end road she couldnt take her preboard exams due to her illness and later sat for mock boards she studied whenever she could focus as she knew her disease was a longterm one and she would have to continue her medication a resident of meeruts saraswati vihar kanikas parents are teachers while her father dinesh chandra rai is an economics teacher her mother meera joshi teaches at a government primary school in meerut she had stopped recognizing anybody in the family after the psychosis stroke and kept mumbling we were afraid about her health but luckily she started improving she could have easily skipped the boards this year but was determined to study that made her achieve this feat and score 784 said her father kanika has opted for science stream and plans to pursue bsc and later sit for bank exams talking about her hobbies kanika said i like playing the guitar listening to music and painting i will continue working as hard as i did for my boards because this disease cannot deter me from achieving my dreams