Sougata Mukhopadhyay, Kolkata: At first sight, it's difficult to believe that 27-year old Payel Bhattacharya faces a life-threatening disease of the rarest kind.

What is called Von Hippel-Lindau or VHL, the genetic disorder has rapidly eaten into almost 70 per cent of her liver.

Simply put, it's a cancerous growth of blood vessels or blood-filled tumors in vital organs.

Doctors admit that this could be the country's first registered case of VHL in liver.

"I'm practicing surgery for the last 20 years and in my 20 years of surgical career, I am seeing the disease that Payel is suffering from for the first time,” says gastrointestinal surgeon, Dr Shibajyoti Ghosh.

An avid reader and a self-taught cyber whiz, this daughter of a pensioner has already undergone five surgeries including a complicated tumor excision from her brain.

But Payal retains her lust for life. "We have been granted only one life.

So if we spend our life brooding over why it's me who's suffering so much, then we'll be losing precious moments of our life. Let us enjoy our life, every moment of it and make the most of it,” says Payel.

Payel has researched extensively on her disease and even created an awareness website.

But it's her plans to adopt a baby girl and provide her with life's goodies that this Shah Rukh Khan admirer doesn't wish to see derailed.

Payel and her family are not merely looking for financial assistance for the very expensive surgery that could help her.

They have also not been able to identify a donor, who will part with a portion of human liver.

But with tremendous faith in humanity, the Bhattacharyas are confident of getting past all these hurdles.