Daily Lesson from Life 06 February 2009

"Thu, Feb 05, 2009 New Straits Times - A positive mind to ace the big 'C': Yap Kien Eng

Looking at how healthy he is now, it is hard to imagine that in 1997, Yap (above) was given only three months to live.


He credits the love and support of his wife and five children as his reason to fight the disease, when all he wanted to do was die.

It started with stomach pains 12 years ago, after eating some yee sang (a dish of shredded vegetables and raw fish). At the hospital, the doctor presumed that he had food poisoning and discharged him after treatment. "I felt the pain off and on, and I had no appetite. Then I had spicy food at a mamak stall one day," he said. "The pain was so excruciating, I was admitted to hospital. "The doctors conducted a battery of tests, including an X-ray and MRI. After a colonoscopy, they found a tumour bigger than my fist.

"I had advanced stage three colon cancer." Yap went under the knife to have the tumour and 38cm of his colon removed. He also underwent six cycles of chemotherapy but his ordeal did not end there. Two months after he completed chemo, Yap noticed lumps on his neck. "I had a relapse. The cancer had moved to my lymph nodes and the tumours were like two horns on my neck. The doctors suggested new drugs to treat this stage-four growth and said that if I did not go for treatment, I would have just three months to live!"

Yap abhorred any treatment as he had seen the effect of the drugs on another cancer patient. "It was not something I wanted to go through if I was dying. I cried until I had no tears left.


"I didn't want my wife and children to find out that I was dying. I wanted to spare them the pain." Eventually, he did tell them and it was an emotional moment when his family told him that they would make the best of the time they had with him. That was when Yap decided to find ways to prolong his life.

With his wife's encouragement, he took up qiqong. "I practised 10 to 12 hours a day using the zhineng technique to overcome pain. I did a 3 1/2-hour session daily." Yap claimed that qigong had helped him overcome cancer as within days of the gruelling exercises, he could no longer feel the lumps on his neck.

To motivate other cancer patients, he teaches qigong at National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM) every Sunday. "What I do through qigong is suppress the cancer cells in my body. I am a much stronger person now. I have not seen my doctors since 1997."


Yap said a person is diagnosed with cancer for life as it is incurable. To ensure that you do not relapse, it is important to change your lifestyle and stay positive. Attitude is a crucial factor in keeping cancer at bay, because if the mind is weak, it will be difficult to win the battle.

"If you have cancer, talk to cancer survivors. Don't talk to people who have no idea of what you are going through. You need to join a support group. "Family and friends need to be positive around cancer patients. They should not cry or start to ask about dying or show a negative attitude because it will affect the patient." "

It is a VERY LONG and FULL Quotation from the news!

The lessons for me are:

1. keeping a healthy mind will help to keep a healthy body! Mind over body!! Keeping a positive mindset matters when we are faced with adversity and even death! Notice Mr Yap's will to live!;

2. keep positive-minded company! Influence the people around you to be positive when they are around you as negative energy CANNOT help a recovering patient! Of course, the patient has to be positive too, lest the patient thought people are making fun of their illness! It takes two to tango!! Noticed the mention of: support group! Two-way communication will help to establish the trust and common purpose!;

3. when ALL else failed, try UNCONVENTIONAL methods. I am NOT advocating qigong as a cure to cancer patients. We DO know that: if we do the usual and old method of solving an old problems that failed, we normally will NOT get any new results doing the same! BUT if we try something new, then we can expect some new results. It may be good or it may be worst! But at least we know it is different!

Courage is a required quality of a leader. A leader can learn from the recovering cancer patient the courage and optimism and 'dare to try new way' mindset!