Illness

Real Life, Real People

A new heart for baby

“There’s something wrong with your baby’s heart.” In 2014, 22 weeks into my pregnancy, a routine ultrasound revealed severe anomalies in the baby’s heart. A rare congenital heart defect...

Real Life, Real People

See you soon, Dad

I remember climbing the Great Wall of China with my father in 2009. My sisters and mother were predictably not game enough to ascend the cobbled steps, but we men were always so brave. I led the way...

Real Life, Real People

My battle with bulimia and anorexia

Time: 3.43AM. Distance covered: 22.7km. Calories burned: 1,743kcal. Current weight: 52.7kg. That was how far shame took me. At 14 years old, I was training to be a national high jumper. My fat...

Real Life, Real People

Where are you, my babies? Two lost children later, I finally became a mum

One midnight in April 1999, I was pushed into the operation theatre for an emergency operation. I was then 6 weeks pregnant. My first child was growing in my right fallopian tube and the tube was...

Real Life, Real People

I was 18, full of ambition, full of myself. Then my heart stopped beating

I woke up groggy and disoriented in a bed that was not my own. I looked around and realised I was in a humid hospital ward. Beside me, an old man was wheezing violently, hands gripping onto the...

Real Life, Real People

I saw the light: How I learnt to drown out my woes in worship

About 3 years ago, I woke up barely able to see a thing. There was a sliver of light coming in from my left eye, and nothing through the right eye. The blood vessels in both my eyes had burst that...

Real Life, Real People

THIR.ST TALKS: I know an amazing woman

We’ve all heard stories about amazing women – but how often do we hear these stories from the mouths of men? Thir.st went behind the scenes with five such women who have incredible stories of...

Illness

I feel like ants are eating away at my flesh: Living and dying with ALS

When Lum Kum Sung was a teenager, he lived the #YOLO life. An adventure-seeker, he loved anything that got him on his feet. His social life was also rich – friends jio-ed him for many activities...