Category: National Cancer Society Malaysia

“My name is Staci Tan and I am 26 this year. I was 25 when I was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer.

A few months into my job in a media agency as a media planner, I was sent for a medical check up where subsequently I was diagnosed.

The tumour was as big as my fist and it was removed alongside 27cm of my colon. I was in hospital for 10 days and took 6 weeks off work for recovery. This was in January 2016.

In March 2016, I started 12 cycles of chemotherapy every 2 weeks. I did not stop work because it was manageable.

Working actually helped me feel normal, because sitting at home just wasn’t doing me any good.

One week I would go for chemo and the second week I would go back to work.

The first week after chemo, for the first two days I would feel really tired and don’t feel like working but by the third day I actually felt like I could get the hang of it.

Work gave me a sense of normalcy and it helped me to recover.

This lasted till sept 2016. You will find a scar at my collarbone – this is the chemo port.

Nurses put in the needles into the port under my skin to conduct chemotherapy. I still have it with me till today; the doctor wants me to keep it up to five years, just in case.

Until I surgically remove it, I have to flush it at the hospital every 3 months.

I feel more normal every day, and sometimes forget about the cancer experiences I had to go through.

But I wouldn’t say I’ve moved on. It gets more infrequent but sometimes you just have a dilemma whether to push your limits or to hold back your ambitions.

I guess that’s the struggle for young cancer survivors. We’re too young to retire and have a lot of things that we still want to achieve but we’re afraid if pushing the limits will cause a relapse.

I find it kind of funny but I felt most blessed and lucky when I was diagnosed with cancer.

There were many things to be thankful about — being diagnosed before it spread further, having just enough insurance coverage for the treatment, meeting great doctors, having a good job, having supportive bosses and colleagues, family to take care of me, lovely friends to check on me and many more.

When my colleagues or friends hear of my cancer stories, they would say “you’re so strong”, and I always hesitate to reply because I think everyone has their own stories of being strong. Mine happens to be cancer.

For others, it may be depression, body image issue, or family affairs. We all have stories of strength in our own ways. Stay strong. You never know who you’re inspiring”.

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur went down and spoke with a trio of female cancer survivors from the National Cancer Society Malaysia. These are their stories.

Staci runs her own personal blog documenting her journey, visit it at https://kyension.com/category/sharestrength/

“My dream was to be a psychologist and to open a center and help underprivileged children develop socially and mentally. That’s why I studied developmental psychology all the way until PhD, until 3 years ago when I found out I had cancer. I was 27 years old.

Back then, I was a news anchor for ntv7, and hosted a successful web series and events, but as I was heading for a conference in China, I started getting diarrhea once a month which then became chronic for three weeks straight, whilst at full day events.

I went to see two doctors, and the medication I took didn’t help me at all. My dad then instructed me to go see a specialist so I went to see a gastroenterologist and he actually told me not to do a colonoscopy, but my dad insisted, and because of that we found a tumor in my colon.

So I had seven days to get my life together before my surgery – because it might spread and it is fatal.

When I woke up after the long procedure, I found that I had a colostomy bag, which is when your intestines are hanging out of your body and held in the bag, so your faeces and everything has to go through it. Turns out that the tumor was too close to the rectum.

They reversed the colostomy. I didn’t have to do chemo but the experience of the bag was a hard one. I couldn’t believe that it was happening.

The doctors couldn’t understand why either because I had no genetic history of it.

At the time I had a boyfriend. He actually cleans up the poo- since I don’t poo the normal way- and sometimes I can’t even control it and it’ll come out while he’s wiping it and he still did it.

He’s now my husband. He’s really supportive. We’ve been together about six years and when I had cancer it was our fourth year together.

But now my dream has changed, because I’ve had cancer. I came back to Malaysia to raise awareness. Now I want to help cancer patients and survivors – especially young ones. Young people with cancer are actually occurring more and more, so people need to be more aware of it.

It’s so unexpected for them and I want to help them move on with life.

A lot of young patients feel embarrassed about it, and never tell their friends. But they shouldn’t feel that way. They should take it as an experience, learn from it and move forward positively. I think that’s very important. After a while, I realized why should I be embarrassed about it? And that’s when I came out.

Just because they are young doesn’t mean they don’t face problems, and actually it’s because that they are young that they face more problems, as compared to elderly people who get cancer. It’s tougher for them to get a job, and they can never be covered by insurance ever again, so be prepared. It’s very important to get covered if you’re young financially. Early detection is important.

I know that when you are young, you wanna try and move on, you want to try and live a normal life. But I think you should try and understand and don’t keep it inside. If you wanna share or if you need support, come to our support groups”

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur went down and spoke with a trio of female cancer survivors from the National Cancer Society Malaysia. These are their stories.

Check out Mei Sze’s page at www.facebook.com/choomeisze/ and https://meisze.com/

“There was a fast growing tumor on the right side of my brain, and it was causing water retention in the brain which, if the tumor actually gets larger, will actually push the central alignment of the brain towards the left. When it covers the air passage of the brain, breathing will be difficult and I might lose my life because of that. This condition is called hydrocephalus and this form of cancer is called lymphoma. So the doctor insisted to take out the tumor and surgery was crucial and I needed to do it as soon as possible because it was life threatening.

So they had to dig in through the skull into my brain to remove the tumor and to drain the water out.

I then underwent my chemotherapy,radiation therapy, and I also did a stem cell transplant.

Thankfully, I am almost two years in remission.

And yes, my perspective on life changed.

I think we take things for granted usually, because if your life is normal, you won’t really appreciate everything in life. I’ve been through so many treatments, and the stem cells transplants were regenerating my life over and over again.

I can say that I have a new chance at life, which is a very lucky thing to have. I now treasure everything I come across, and I know how to appreciate the small things in life. Small things like having a perfect blood test report. Small things like these, like blood test results and my hair, growing, is happiness – something to be happy about. And I was not like this before.

When I was diagnosed I quit my job, because I was expecting another relapse.

I wish I hadn’t worked for so long. My daily routine was basically work, eat, sleep.

I changed my life, I changed to a slower paced life. I’m working on my own sweet time.

Work is not everything in life. If you are the workaholic type, do spend time with your family, because they should be the most important thing in your life. Work can’t replace them, whenever you fall sick, you rely on your family. Work can’t help much, except financially. Don’t neglect them because of work, it’s not worth it. Health is the other most important thing. I now work at my own pace, and focus more on my personal life”.

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur went down and spoke with a trio of female cancer survivors from the National Cancer Society Malaysia. These are their stories.