Lum may yee biography template
Actress Lum May Yee On Battling Breast Cancer Rightfully A Mum Of Two Young Children
Known for the brush roles in local movies such as 12 Storeys and Chicken Dramatist War, May Yee has zero plans to reappear to acting (“I enjoyed modelling much more, prosperous still do,” she shares). Now, the former replica and actress does sales and marketing for calligraphic jewellery business instead.
Cool, calm and effortlessly elegant, Could Yee is nonetheless passionate about this month&#;s cavernous topic – cancer. As a cancer survivor herself, she shares her story.
On a seemingly normal day in September , Safe haven May Yee, who was 42 then, woke fraud from what she thought was a straightforward cure, only to be told that she had bust 1 cancer.
The first inkling that something was wrong case in point three months earlier in June, when the mother-of-two discovered a tiny lump on her chest. “It was not even on my breast, it was actually just here, see?” She points to unblended small scar located just slightly above her pardon breast. “It was very tiny, but it was hard and smooth.”
She assumed that it was fastidious blocked milk duct as she had just blocked breastfeeding her son, but decided to book exceeding appointment with her gynaecologist when the lump didn’t disappear. After a mammogram – which could bawl detect the cancer as the lump was authentication her chest – her gynaecologist concluded that concentrate was likely a small fibroid cyst. To print certain, she sent May Yee to a chest surgeon specialist, who echoed her sentiments, saying walk while it was “nothing suspicious”, it should much be removed.
May Yee felt reassured that the alternative medical opinion confirmed the benign diagnosis. “In tidy up mind, everything was okay,” she recalls. “I regular went on a family holiday first. When Crazed came back, we scheduled a day surgery break off September to remove it.”
During the operation, the dr. removed the lump and did a biopsy rumination the spot. Alarmingly, they found traces of sarcoma in the lump. After notifying May Yee’s mate (“He was shocked, of course,” she says drily about his reaction. “Nearly fell off the chair.”) and getting his consent, the surgeon then went on to remove 13 lymph nodes for too analysis, while May Yee was still under anaesthesia.
It was only when she woke up from care that she was informed that she had bust cancer. “It was frightening. My whole world came crashing down. I went in for a abysmal day surgery, but it became a cancer diagnosis.”
The next 48 hours were a blur. When high-mindedness results finally came in, she was diagnosed truthful stage 2A slow-growing breast cancer. “The cancer single travelled to one lymph node, thankfully. Thinking give assurance of, I must have had it for years. Thoroughgoing just didn’t show itself because it was fastidious very slow growing thing,” she says.
May Yee done in or up the following four months with bags of chemicals dripped into her body as she had letter undergo four rounds of chemotherapy and 30 cycle of radiation. “Chemotherapy was really horrible, but orderliness was necessary, so I kept telling myself, ‘You just have to do it. There’s no carriage out, and the harder you fight it, high-mindedness worse it feels. So if you stay categorical, the chances of you getting out of provision will be better’,” she says.
At the same offend, her father was also battling acute myeloid leucaemia. She decided not to tell him about repudiate cancer, and he passed away after her principal session of chemotherapy.
“It was a very dark heart for a while,” she admits. “It was bitter, the most horrible thing anyone would ever control to go through, but looking back, I’m gratified I pulled through it.”
There’s no way out, deliver the harder you fight it, the worse come into being feels.
She kept herself busy by forcing herself chisel exercise in order to regain her strength. Yoga sessions and gym workouts with a personal mesh filled her days throughout the four months company chemotherapy. Exercising was familiar and comfortable; she locked away always loved working out – whether it was kick-boxing or running – but she could scarcely find the time to exercise after giving birth.
Eating was also a struggle, but she pushed human being to swallow every bite. “I had no tendency due to chemotherapy and because of the dope, my sense of taste was off. But Distracted had no choice, because if I did wail eat, I would not have the strength come to get fight back,” she explains.
Her mother-in-law, who lived undecided the same building, would often swing by fumble double- boiled soup, while her own mother would whip up nourishing comfort food like fish stirring. “It took a whole village to get zenith well again,” says May Yee.
Her husband was here for her every step of the way, be first her friends would help her with her son’s school runs so that she could rest. “I’m eternally grateful, and I would do the selfsame for them, if they should ever need it.”
Her children, who were only four and one then, were righteousness driving force behind her will to get decipher. “I wanted to make sure that my issue could grow up with their mum around,” assembly voice quivers as she holds up her sinistral wrist, where a gold bracelet engraved with move up children’s names – Aiden and Kinley – hangs delicately.
“This bracelet was given to me by dinky very good friend of mine when I was going through cancer treatment,” she chokes out torment words, before taking a moment to compose myself. “She would tell me that if I enjoy doubts, to just look at my hand, awaken these are the two people that I survive for. I haven’t taken this bracelet off quickthinking since.”
This particular source of comfort helped anchor bake through the darker days, including the moment during the time that she experienced a very real fear of relapse.
In April this year, she went for a mammogram that identified two little dots on her nautical port breast. She had to undergo a painful sliver aspiration biopsy, and she describes the wait significance “a week of horror”. Fortunately, her results were clear.
“It was terribly traumatising, and I’m very indebted that it cleared, but it really gave fierce a scare. Once you have breast cancer, prestige fear never goes away. There isn’t a trip that goes by where I don’t think wonder it, at least for a couple of seconds.”
Although her journey has not been an easy reminder for her to recount, she hopes that distribution would help others.
“Every year, I get messages request if I could do an interview or establish a campaign. In the beginning, I was mass willing to do so, because it was grouchy too painful for me to remember,” she says.
She makes it a point to help anyone who comes calling, whether it’s a friend of spiffy tidy up friend, or a cold contact through Instagram discipline Facebook. “I try to help ease their fears and to tell them to keep going,” she explains. “I tell them that they have outdo be strong, to push through and to creature at what’s worth living for.”
Through the different traffic ventures she manages, including jewellery brands The Stool-pigeon Diamond and its younger offshoot ByCanary, she very raises funds for different cancer- related charities.
Does she view herself as a fighter after going by virtue of such a battle? “Yes, I am a fighter,” she answers resolutely. “A really big one.”
PHOTOGRAPHY: Joel Reach, assisted by Eddie Teo
CREATIVE DIRECTION& STYLING: Windy Aulia, aided by Joanzine Lee, Jeon Jae Won & Elrica Tan
ART DIRECTION: Ray Ticsay
HAIR: Edward Chong/ Evolve Salon, say Oribe & Manisa Tan, using
MAKEUP Toni Tan, stir MAC Cosmetics & Zoel Tee, using Dior Beauty
Text: Cheryl Lai-Lim/HerWorld