Illness

Illness

Surviving childhood cancer thrice, I never understood why God let me live

My name is Gabriel. I am 20 years old and throughout my life, I have had cancer three times. I had my first encounter with cancer in 2009. I was only five years old then. It started with just...

Real Life, Real People

I lost a kidney growing up, but I would come to gain so much more

I was three years old when I lost a kidney.Ā  From a young age, I had been having regular fevers. My mother kept bringing me to the general practitioner, but there was no other sign from my body that...

Illness

A doctor’s reflections on sickness, suffering and death

As a junior doctor in her fourth month on the job, death is no stranger to me. Iā€™ve called families at 3am to let them know that their loved oneā€™s blood pressure is downtrending, that this is a...

Illness

Fighting for the chance of a new heart and lung, but I’m still breathing in grace

When I received my diagnosis in 2017, I was still relatively normal. I could still move about like an ordinary person, I just did my daily activities more slowly. For instance, I took longer to walk...

Mental Health

After the panic attacks began, I faced depression and anxiety

My heart is poundingā€¦ My hands are shakingā€¦ I canā€™t breatheā€¦ The whole world is spinningā€¦ Iā€™m gonna faintā€¦ Am I gonna die? These were the thoughts that were running through my mind when...

Illness

When God didn’t heal my mum of cancer

I waited with bated breath for mum’s message in the hospital hallway. My phone pinged. I saw image after image of a ugly red, fungating mass in a colon. Immediately, I shrunk into my hospital...

Real Life, Real People

Diagnosed with cancer at a young age, she discovered the love of God through kindness and open doors

I was 14 when I was diagnosed with leukaemia.Ā  My parents sold our flat in our home country to finance my treatment in Singapore.Ā  A year later, after five cycles of chemotherapy, the cancer was in...

Illness

Fathers in heaven: Reflections from dad’s 18-month battle with terminal cancer

In July 2020, I lost my dad to Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS). He was 59 years old and I was 21. In October 2018, my dad visited our family doctor after a fever he developed had persisted for over a...

Real Life, Real People

I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was pregnant

Around the middle of 2021, I discovered that I was pregnant, so I arranged to see an obstetrician at the hospital.Ā  During the check-up, I also decided to raise the issue of the two lumps on my...