Joan Chan, and her lessons on life...

There was this article in Straits Times Life section last Christmas about young women in Singapore who were cornered by cancer at a time in their lives where they should be pretty much carefree and free to map out their dreams and ambitions as if they would live forever.

The featured real-life stories were all full of admirable strength and spirit on the part of the female protagonists. In particular, the story of Joan Chan stood out, the 20-year-old who had to battle tongue cancer from the day she took in this devastating news from her doctor at all of 18.

Going by the magnitude of the situation she was caught in, the physically- and emotionally-traumatic experiences she had to deal with over the course of her treatments, which involved major operations, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and inevitably, the worries about money...it was probably not expected of her to remain exceedinly strong and positive in the face of all these. Yet she had, and her feat had touch and inspired many.

In my opinion, she had won the battle, though she passed away peacefully last week in her sleep after an earlier decision to terminate treatment.

Like what she had written in her blog, I am not exactly the kind of person to do very little else but whine and grip in the face of problems. We both believe in focusing on thinking about the best way to tackle the problem in question, and then putting it into action.

I have always thought of myself as a fighter like her, and I always believe I will be able to find the strength to see myself through any predicament.

However, after reading about her ordeal, I truly wonder if I can deal with what she had faced in the same brilliant way of hers.

I sincerely hope none of us will ever have to find out the answer to this question about ourselves.

Whatever the case, I will always remind myself of Joan the next time I am caught in situations that I find daunting. Situations which, I believe, will no doubt be only a teeny weeny fraction of what Joan had taken on, and won.