With a meagre investment of Rs 2,500/-, the Vasantha Memorial Trust was founded in 1993, to create awareness about cancer among the general public.  Since then, various individuals and celebrities have chipped in to help fund the efforts of the Trust. Vasantha Memorial, which shifted base from Trichy to Coimbatore, arranges treatment for the poor and needy, by adopting villages and conducting regular cancer screening camps.  The trust also extends support to hospices for cancer victims like Shanti Avedhana (Mumbai), Jeevodaya (Chennai) and Santhiniketan (Tiruchur).

The priority of the trust has been to sponsor treatment for the poor. This is based on the conviction that telling a person, diagnosed with cancer, that s/he cannot be treated because of not having money, is the worst thing that could be done.  The trust has so far sponsored treatment either fully or partially for 44 cancer patients (15 acute leukaemia patients, nine chronic leukaemia patients, six lymphoma patients, six patients with blood cancer and eight patients with solid tumours). Screening camps are conducted in villages every three months and over a hundred men and a hundred women are screened at each camp.  The target group for these screenings are women aged between 25 to 50 and men above 50. 

To tackle the psychological dimension of the problem the trust has joined hands with Asha Counselling Centre (ACC) and the Ayurvedic Trust at Coimbatore.  A team from ACC helps the patient accept the diagnosis through group counselling sessions and helps them in shedding the stigma, after they are cured.  A trainer from the Ayurvedic Trust teaches meditation to the patients, as it is strongly believed that meditation helps in arresting the growth of the disease and in quickening the recovery of patients. For this purpose, the Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital, has given its premises to the trust, on all Wednesdays.

Donations to the Trust are tax-exempt under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act.