From soccer player to...Cancer fighter

Doctors gave him six months to live, but he conquered liver cancer through sheer will – and a bit of fancy footwork

John, 18, was a gangly soccer player in the S-League Youth team. He didn’t think much about the state of his health until he constantly felt lethargic and lost his appetite.

That was in August 2002. The polytechnic student mysteriously shed 8kg off his 60kg frame over six months, prompting his mother to suggest a full-body check-up at a polyclinic.

John was referred to the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) for a scan after an initial blood test. Results then indicated abnormalities – and immediately caused alarm.

“You need to come to the hospital right now,” John’s father instructed over the phone.

On that same day, the boy was pulled out of class and admitted into hospital. His cancer had reached an advanced stage with a large tumour in his liver. Doctors gave him six months to live – devastating news which his parents kept from him.

A month later, John was transferred to Mount Elizabeth Hospital upon the advice of his doctor, Dr Prema Raj, a consultant hepatobiliary, pancreatic and general surgeon.

He underwent numerous blood tests each day, missing out on school, soccer, and most of all, playing best man at his cousin’s wedding.

About that trying period, John confessed he was searching for answers. He said: “I didn’t smoke or drink and my family had no history of cancer. I kept thinking where the cancer came from and why this was happening to me.”

Dr Raj delayed John’s operation to remove the tumour because it was too large. He asked Dr Ang Peng Tiam, a senior consultant medical oncologist, to shrink the tumour first, with chemotherapy.

Dr Ang said: “Chemotherapy would also help to kill any cancer cells in other parts of the liver which may not be visible on the scans.”

John says one dramatic episode boosted his will to fight cancer. He fainted and hospital staff tried desperately to revive him. “They thought I was gone,” John said.

His father, who works irregular shifts in a shipyard, accompanied John to a temple. It became an abode of calm and peace which he regularly visited. With added reassurance from his parents and elder sister, who is a nurse, John felt he saw “some light at the end of the tunnel”.

He said: “Half of the help comes from doctors and loved ones. The other half must come from within. I knew I was alone on this.”

He kept himself active with regular walks and jogs.

When he felt bursts of energy, the chemotherapy patient would cycle from his home near Tiong Bahru to East Coast Park, with a tube attached to a main vessel in his chest leading to a pouch strapped around his waist. Low on blood, he often returned feeling faint, with vision in only one eye.

After the operation, only 30 per cent of John’s liver was left. The tumour was sent to a pathologist and results showed that the cancer in it had been killed by the chemotherapy.

This year, John is 24 and he has passed a five-year cancer recurrence danger mark. He gave up his dream of playing in an S-League first-team, and went from a sportsman to a studious undergraduate.

He is thankful to be alive and healthy. Cancer taught him to make full use of time.

Currently a third year psychology undergraduate, John has been accepted into his cohort’s honours class.

On top of his studies, John also teaches part-time in two schools and at a tuition centre.

He said: “I always visualised that I will be okay. If you give up, cancer will eat you up.”

John’s name has been changed to protect his privacy.