Cancer comes stealthily.

When I was about thirty years of age, I used to jog and run every evening from my house into the rubber estate nearby and from there to Sungai Pasir before returning home, covering a distance of approximately six kilometres. My running mate then was Lim, a guy a little younger than me but so much fitter and having better stamina than me although I was a member of the Penang Free School cross-country team, representing my school in form four and five.

And so each day I had to put in great effort to keep up with Lim as we made our way into the estates and to other residential areas before strolling around for a short while when we returned home. Each day he presented a good challenge for me not to lag too far behind in our run.

However, each time we ran I noticed that phlegm from his nose was usually a discomfort he had to endure during the run. I did enquire about it and he told me that according to a doctor he had seen about his possible constant cold and the phlegm, it was merely an allergy due to pollen grains in the air. (That same doctor died of cancer many years later.) So we left it at that, not realising that it was a sign or symptom of a terrible sickness.

After a few years of running consistently, one day Lim came to my house to inform me that he nedded my house-phone as his had spoiled and he needed the phone badly. I wondered what was the urgency and was told that a doctor in a private hospital had told him he is suspected of having cancer. All his relatives have been phoning him before his phone went dead. He expected many more to be calling as word spread of his possible illness. I lent him my phone and went along with him to sure the phone would be working properly.

According to Lim, he had a bad case of too much phlegm emerging from the nose and so quickly consulted a doctor in a private hospital. An X-ray revealed what the doctor suspected and a date for an operation was immediately decided upon.

When the doctor operated on him, they discovered that the cancer behind his heart was too far gone to be removed with an operation. They closed it up again and he was given some months to live. During the last stage of cancer, he suffered from pain and doctors gave him morphine to overcome his pain not too successfully. After approximately six months, he passed away.

Now the fantastic thing about Lim and his cancer was that even a few days before being operated on, he could still run, not just run, he was still faster and with a better stamina than mine. So cancer had come so stealthily that even a man who reads a lot and had much knowlege, he was a science graduate, could not realise the danger that had infiltrated into his body to destroy him.

Therefore, we have to be careful and should any unfamiliar, uncomfortable symptom be present for more than a week or two, a thorough examination of the body should be made to determine the cause. So please take care.