Stories

In times of need, you can rely on others for help, not just family.

Sometimes, we go to the doctor thinking we know what might be wrong and end up completely with a different diagnosis. For Jeannie Wang KC, this was one of those times.

The hospital is not an unfamiliar place for Mdm Tuminah, who has been working as an administrative assistant in one for many years. But in 2015, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she never saw a hospital the same way again.

Butter-scotch ice cream, buckets of oysters and delectable hawker treats were just some of the things that Francis Koh, a self-proclaimed gourmand, never failed to indulge in.

It had always been Zoe Yap’s dream to have three children. Just one month after giving birth to her firstborn son at 33, she was shattered to find that her dream was no longer possible.

Slogging arduously for hours over her office desk, Cherrie Ho, 49, was a self-identified workaholic. Time for family, friends and even herself were thrown in the backburner as she prioritised nothing but her career as a business manager and the success of her company. But everything changed when she was diagnosed with cancer. 

Mdm Soon Hui San was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017.

Making ends meet was challenging for the single mother of 2. With the financial challenges and loss of job, Mdm Soon had to manage her sons’ (then 16 and 12) education as well.

Tan Soi Hong Anna, 72, is a passionate altruist, dedicating a significant portion of her adult life to being a strong advocate of lowering the risks of breast cancer through breast feeding. Anna would have never expected herself to be afflicted by the same circumstance. On the receiving-end of care, she simply could not come to terms with the irony of her situation.