Seizing opportunities, fighting to live: How young cancer patients deal with challenges and treatment
SINGAPORE: For the past three years, life has been a juggling act for Shaun Lim.
Similar about of his peers, the 24-year-old psychology undergraduate spends his time studying for examinations, as well as rushing to see deadlines for assignments and schools projects.
He is also battling cancer.
Mr Lim was diagnosed with phase three sarcoma cancer in July 2019. It is a rare and ambitious form of cancer that affects bone and soft tissues. He was 22 years old then and had only started university.
Being young and active, Mr Lim struggled to process the news and was in denial virtually his diagnosis.
"At that point in time, I was playing basketball quite regularly and I was also going to the gym quite regularly likewise," he told CNA. "So it was one of the last things, in my mind, that could happen to me."
The reality of the situation only hit him a month later, when he started his treatment.
"I was warded for chemotherapy and that was when it finally sank in that I had cancer and that I had to get through treatment to get rid of it," he said.
Things took a turn for the worse in December 2019, when he had to undergo major surgery to remove a neoplasm in his abdomen. Information technology forced him to take a year-long leave of absence from academy.
Mr Lim was among the patients highlighted by the National Cancer Heart of Singapore (NCCS) as it marks National Cancer Survivors Twenty-four hour period on Sunday (Jun 6).
It is a "celebration of life" that is marked annually around the world.
"Participants unite in such a symbolic event to show the world that life later a cancer diagnosis can even so be meaningful, active and productive," said NCCS on its website.
WHEN THE YOUNG Become CANCER
According to an annual written report published by the Singapore Cancer Registry, which presented trends from 1968 to 2018, those under 39 years onetime historically brand up less than 10 per cent of all cancer diagnoses per twelvemonth.
NCCS said it sees betwixt 450 and 550 new adolescent and immature adult cancer cases each year.
While they are a relatively small group, medical experts CNA spoke to said such patients face a distinct set up of issues because of their age grouping.
Fertility preservation, besides as the ability to return to piece of work, are common concerns amongst young cancer patients, said Dr Teh Yi Lin, the manager of NCCS' Cancer Education and Data Services.
"For young patients, especially those who take however to get married, or are newly married and who exercise not have children, fertility may be one of the things that are on their mind," said Dr Teh, who is also an associate consultant at NCCS' medical oncology division.
"This is something that we practise take to discuss with each individual patient before they commence on treatment because various treatments can cause sub-fertility, and while our younger patients tend to recover fairly well, not all of them would exist able to excogitate in the time to come."
Returning to normalcy or trying to restart careers after treatment could likewise be challenging.
"Patients might feel like they are always feeling fatigued and that this might touch on their twenty-four hours to solar day work, or twenty-four hours to day lives," Dr Teh said.
She noted that in some cases, patients who had an amputation as office of their treatment would also take to get used to using a prosthesis and discover a job that accommodates their needs.
FIGHTING TO LIVE
Despite the odds stacked against them, immature patients oft demonstrate a "potent" decision and volition to fight and live, according to medical experts CNA spoke to.
Dr Wong Seng Weng, a medical director and consultant medical oncologist at The Cancer Heart, said he sees between ii and five young developed patients each twelvemonth.
Most of them choose not to compromise on their treatment, frequently opting for aggressive therapy, he said.
"They have a lot to alive for and they accept many years ahead of them," he said.
"So if you requite them strong chemotherapy, they accept it because they are able to handle side effects fairly well and likewise because they are young and their organ functions are very strong."
Information technology is a similar observation for Dr Teh who said that none of the young patients she has encountered and so far has rejected treatment.
That is despite knowing how tough information technology tin can be, she added.
Recalling a patient she lost last year, Dr Teh said the human being in his 30s, who had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, connected handling even though the outlook was non promising.
"He had quite a fleck of side effects related to handling but all the while, he told me that he wanted to live on for his kid, so that he could encounter his child abound up," Dr Teh said.
"When the cancer got likewise aggressive, he was yet fighting on, he was nonetheless trying to get to work and then that he could withal salve any of the savings for his spouse likewise as his child," she added.
"It was definitely a heartbreaking journeying, particularly towards the finish, merely seeing his determination … I call back that was very inspiring."
FINDING Significant IN HELPING OTHERS
For young people like Mr Lim, the cancer and treatment also affected his social life.
"At the get-go, I couldn't go out and spend time with my friends and I couldn't play at the basketball courtroom or go out for meals with friends … then for a good period of fourth dimension, I felt a bit more than isolated," he said.
Even afterward he returned to school, it was non without challenges.
"There were some moments where information technology was quite tiring because of the side furnishings of chemotherapy only, I nevertheless had to proceed studying for my quizzes or contribute to my group projects, study for finals," he said.
"Really looking dorsum, I have no idea how I did it, somehow I managed to pull through."
Mr Lim is not out of the woods yet. He is due for a scan early this month that volition determine whether the handling has been successful.
In the meantime, he is planning for his time to come and is leaning towards a career path in psycho-oncology, a field that looks at the psychosocial aspects of cancer.
The hope is to be able to help others like him bargain with cancer, he said.
"With everything that has happened, information technology made me retrieve, equally well as explore, the prospect of psychology," he said. "I desire to effort to give back to guild, besides equally aid current and future patients, by putting what I study into something meaningful."
Equally he waits for his tertiary year at university to begin in August, Mr Lim is volunteering at NCCS, where he helps to plan outreach programmes for young cancer patients.
"It'due south definitely fulfilling … and it's non a chance or an opportunity that I want to waste," he said.
"Later on going through everything, I've realised that life is pretty unpredictable and short so … if there's something that I want to do, I shouldn't waste matter time thinking about unnecessary stuff and simply get in and do it."
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/young-cancer-patients-treatment-challenges-cancer-survivors-day-248811
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