Chue Mei Chew has battled breast cancer for more than 20 years. She suffered depression after losing a breast, and at her lowest point, even refused treatment. But she’s proof that with empathetic doctors and support from loved ones, cancer doesn’t have to be a death sentence.
Chue Mei Chew has battled breast cancer for more than 20 years. She suffered depression after losing a breast, and at her lowest point, even refused treatment. But she’s proof that with empathetic doctors and support from loved ones, cancer doesn’t have to be a death sentence.
In August 2011, Chue Mei Chew started coughing so violently that she couldn’t walk. Her brother had to carry her downstairs so she could be taken to hospital.
There, doctors told her the breast cancer she had ignored for nine years had spread.
The cancer had reached her lungs and bones, and chemotherapy was the only option. Now 62, Mei Chew recalls resisting treatment initially. She didn’t want to relive the “torturous” chemotherapy – six sessions in all – she went through in 1993, when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer.
At the time of her first diagnosis, she had also been told: “You have to go for a mastectomy.” Those words had sent her into shock and changed her life forever.
She was just 38 years old at the time, and the thought of losing a breast left her speechless. “I went back and forth about the decision, up until the last minute,” she says. In the end, she had the breast removed.
After the surgery came depression. “[As a woman], I had lost something very important to my identity and self-esteem,” she says. Friends and family were full of good intentions, but couldn’t find the right words to comfort her.
The surgical scars soon faded, but not the psychological ones.
So when another malignant tumour appeared in 2002, in her right breast, Mei Chew refused treatment.
Only in 2011, when her condition worsened, did she see an oncologist, who coaxed her into overcoming her fears. She told Mei Chew: “You’ve come this far. What do you have to lose?”, before leaving the oral chemotherapy medication by her bedside.
That kind, empathetic approach made all the difference. Mei Chew eventually agreed to treatment, and hospital staff made sure she had the support she needed.
Visitors were told to display positive body language, and shower her with words of encouragement. “I didn’t even know how sick I was at the time, because my doctor didn’t let me think about it,” says Mei Chew.
Although still fighting cancer, she travels, does ballroom dancing, and has started a theology course.
