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A YOUNG GIRL’S PLEA TO SAVE HER MOTHER FROM CANCER

I was 18 years old when I took my practical training as an intern at the Dao Gou Health Clinic in Tong Hua City. One day, a thirteen-year-old girl whose mother was admitted at the hospital for cancer came to see me. As I passed by the entrance of the ward, she knelt down at my feet, crying, "doctor, please save my mother from cancer." I beg you, please save her." I was wearing a white uniform at the time so she probably mistook me for a doctor. I was, however, only a medical intern, a young fellow who could not even dare to claim to be a doctor. I gathered that it was entirely impossible to help the girl’s mother from suffering in final stages of the disease.

Even if I had made the decision to be a doctor in the future and help the woman, I did not have the courage to deal with it at the time. In a week’s time, the girl’s mother died. I felt ashamed of being unable to wipe away the tears of that young girl. It was on that day in October 1972 that I cursed my incapability to influence this outcome. I swore that I would not allow anyone to suffer from the sadness a daughter experiences when she loses her parents or when a family loses a relative. This is how my battle against cancer began.

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