Founder Chairman, Mr. Y. K. Sapru encounters little Jaya Jhabbar, who is battling leukemia. Mr. Sapru and a few friends pool their resources in the first efforts at relief, which takes the form of free medicines and guidance. Jaya is cured and CPAA takes wing. Siloo Jasdanwalla, a colleague of Mr. Sapru, is persuaded to join the fledgling organization. Rekha Sapru, journalist and Mr. Sapru’s wife, is roped in to help.

Resources were limited to just Rs. 500 and a second hand typewriter. People were suspicious and donations were extremely hard to come by. The only funds that we received initially were from moneyboxes placed at various locations in Mumbai. Then our luck turned, when CPAA was granted an audience with the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. Mrs. Gandhi extended her unconditional support to us which was a big morale booster; she gave us a note commending the ‘laudable job’ we were doing, along with a personal cheque for Rs. 5,000; agreed to come on board as our Chief Patron; and continued to support us over the years.

Dr. Shashi Bakre joins CPAA as Medical Director. She is put in charge of a team of 5 doctors and they start holding Cancer Screening Clinics (OPDs) at the Sophia College Medical Centre to screen persons with a perceived high cancer risk.

Veteran showman, Raj Kapoor, holds the premier show of his movie, Bobby, for CPAA’s benefit. Rs. 1 lakh is collected, Bobby goes on to become a smash hit. For a while, movie premieres are the primary source of fund raising.

Zainab Allana comes on board and fundraising activities change from largely money-box collections to employee contributions.

• Madhu Hukku starts the CPAA branch in New Delhi.

• 18 year old Gulshan Hodiwalla joins CPAA. Today she is the Head of Administration and in charge of the daily running of CPAA as an Executive Director

• CPAA organizes a Cancer Exhibition. President of India, Giani Zail Singh inaugurates the exhibition.

• Manju Gupta comes to cover CPAA for Doordarshan, and is persuaded by the Saprus to join CPAA. She is now the Executive Director CPAA’s Rehabilitation Center, which has resurrected lives of over 25,000 patients and family members. Today it has annual sales of over Rs 1 crore.

• Alka Kapadia joins CPAA Administrative Officer in charge of the Head and Neck Project at JJ Hospital.

• CPAA acquires its first vehicle, an ambulance. We now have 11 vehicles including ambulances, jeeps and vans, which allow us to provide free transportation to patients.

• CPAA starts the Rehabilitation Center at Adams Wylie Hospital at Agripada to provide patients and their relative’s gainful employment and teach them specialized skills. CPAA’s Joan Shenoy designed the Centre, which also housed the cancer screening clinics. CPAA’s Kumud Singh took great effort to put together a team to run and manage the Center.

• CPAA is selected by the Government of India to be a recipient of funds raised from taxes on races at Mahalakshmi. We receive these funds till 1995.

• At the request of Dr. Karimbhoy, CPAA sets up a counseling cell at Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children, Mumbai in the Hematology Department, Ward No 13.

• Dr. R.S. Rao, then Director of Tata Memorial Hospital and Dr. Praful Desai, eminent cancer surgeon, ask CPAA to help the hospital set up a Preventive Oncology Department. Today we are involved in a number of counseling efforts at Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) and The Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), the state-of-the-art R&D satellite of TMC.

• Sarla Kohli starts the CPAA branch in Bangalore. 

• CPAA introduces the Cancer Insurance Policy in collaboration with New India Assurance Company. We currently have over 12,000 policy holders. 

• CPAA’s Joan Shenoy conceptualized Cancer Rose Day to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first attempt at cancer patient support made by CPAA. It is a day we reach out to all cancer patients in Mumbai. It has now gained momentum and is celebrated throughout the country.

• At the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) conference in New Delhi, CPAA puts up a stall showcasing its’ activities and also presents a paper.

• Graeme Brien, Executive Director of Queensland Cancer Foundation, invites CPAA’s Viji Venkatesh to the 12th Asia Pacific Cancer Conference at Singapore to talk about ‘Problems in Organizing Voluntary Cancer Societies’.

• Dolly Rizvi starts the CPAA branch in Pune.

• CPAA’s Viji Venkatesh travels to Australia under the William Rudder Travel Grant for a three-week training programme with the Queensland Cancer Foundation.

• CPAA’s Rehabilitation and Patient Services Unit become operational at the Smt. Panadevi Dalmia Cancer Management Centre. Mr. P. C. Alexander, the then Governor of Maharashtra, inaugurates it. CPAA’s Joan Shenoy was responsible in converting the derelict barracks into our Corporate Office housing the offices of employees, the Rehabilitation Centre, the Pathology Laboratory.

• 7 CPAA representatives attend the UICC-sponsored 1st World Conference for Cancer Organisations at Melbourne. Viji Venkatesh is asked to chair one of the sessions as UICC fellow. She talks about her experience as a Scholarship awardee and on ‘Education at the Workplace’.

• At the Asia Pacific Cancer Conference in Hong Kong, CPAA’s Viji Venkatesh presents two papers - on the Breast Cancer situation in Mumbai and the recently started Head and Neck Cancers Support Group. She is appointed committee member of COPES (Community Organisations for Prevention, Education and Support).

•  CPAA is given Room No. 189 in the Golden Jubilee Building at TMC. Halima Aurangabadkar is permanently stationed in this room for the counseling and support of cancer patients.

• CPAA’s Viji Venkatesh and Alka Kapadia attend the UICC conference in Rio
• A state-of-the-art Pathology lab is inaugurated at Naigaon. Cancer screening is done free at this centre, and other tests are done at a highly subsidized rate. All this is made possible by a generous grant from the Shahani Trust.

• 4016 individuals are screened in camps on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day.

• Dr. Shubha Maudgal joins CPAA as Director, Special Projects.

• KSB Pumps sponsors the first Well Woman’s Clinic, an initiative to screen 800 economically backward women for breast cancer. The screening includes a free mammogram.

• CPAA’s Viji Venkatesh is asked to be a plenary speaker at the UICC conference in Atlanta. She is asked to chair a session on Palliative Care at the 15th Asia Pacific Cancer Conference to be held in Chennai in December.

• Glaxo and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories donates a percentage of the sales from some of their cancer related drugs, to CPAA.

• Sunil Gavaskar opens the CPAA website innings at Crossroads on 26th November, 1999. "As in sports have faith in yourself, determination to meet and beat the challenge and patience for the results." - Sunil Gavaskar

• CPAA’s revamped website is launched.

• Research on psyco social effects of cancer is initiated with a study on the role played by counselors in understanding treatment options which is presented at the Conference on Emotional, Social, Psychological, Spiritual and Caring aspects of Cancer, at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore
• CPAA participates for the first time in the World Conference on Breast Cancer held every three years in Canada. We participate again in 2005, 2008 and are invited to join the organizing committee for 2011.

• CPAA is invited to join the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund (NBCCF), an internationally known advocacy group.

• World no Tobacco Day screening touches a new high, covering over 2500 persons in one week. Neeta More organizes camps in other cities, towns and states, besides Mumbai.

• CPAA starts research work with Reliance Life Sciences on the significance of HPV infections as a precursor to cervical cancer.

• CPAA starts its fundraising art exhibition and sale, ‘Colours of Life’

• Rose day reaches out to 33 locations in Mumbai and becomes a nationally observed day. Vinaya Chacko ensures participation from all levels of society.

• CPAA conducts research work on psyco social effects of childhood cancer. Results were presented at the International Society for Pediatric Oncology (SIOP), Geneva.

• CPAA organizes Art Camp involving 14 women artists from 14 cities and four countries.

• CPAA helps to organize the 1st National Tobacco Control Conference, Mumbai. 

• CPAA participates in the Reach to Recovery conference 'Jagruti', Mumbai December 2007.
• CPAA is part of the organizing committee of the SIOP conference, Mumbai, India

• CPAA participates in UICC, Geneva 

• CPAA is awarded its first Capacity Building funding grant By UICC to study tobacco use and awareness amongst marginalised children. The study is later published in the Indian Journal of Cancer.

• CPAA blocks the patenting of a drug, resulting in availability of the genric equivalent at one tenth the price.

• We are invited to Davos on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum for the Private Eye Award.

• CPAA hosts interns from premier institutions from the US (Harvard, Dukes) and UK (Cancer Research, UK, City Universtity of London)

• Our 3 day training programme 'Psyco Oncology Volunteers' Training Programme' begins and goes on to become immensely popular.

• CPAA helps organize “Frontiers in Carcinogenesis and Cancer Prevention: Scientific Endeavours and Public Health Initiatives”, 5th-7th February, 2010.

• CPAA participates in UICC, China, SIOP, Boston, Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health, Sydney, Australia

 CPAA launches it's Tobacco Cessation Programme, 'QUIT TOBACCO FOR LIFE' - a unique programme to help those who wish to quit tobacco habits - smoking or smokeless. Know more