“I was diagnosed with stomach cancer in December 1989. An endoscopy done showed that I had 3 ulcers in my stomach, each as big as 50-cent coin size. When the biopsy was done, it was confirmed that I had stage 4 stomach cancer.

I felt very bitter. Being a Christian, I asked, “Why me, God? Why did such a thing happen to me?”. I knew that I was nearing death and would leave my wife and two children behind. Often, the battle with cancer is also a battle with bitterness.

On 23 March 1990, I had a surgery to remove the cancerous portion of my stomach. It amounted to 70% of my stomach. After the surgery, my surgeon, informed me that, apart from my stomach, several lymph nodes at the abdomen, abdominal cavity area were removed too. The biopsies done confirmed that my lymphatic system was affected. Chemotherapy after surgery was recommended by the oncologist so as to prolong my life. Otherwise, I will not live more than three years. However, he was not able to tell me for how long more I can live.

After hearing what the oncologist said, I prayed to God and asked Him to heal me. I asked in my prayer to give me 20 more years to live. God answered my prayers in two ways: Pastor Reverend Leslie Kwok visited me on Easter, and he prayed with me. He said he saw a vision and asked me whether I saw it too. I said, “Yes, I saw a vertical row of 3 lights, just like the traffic lamp post. The top and middle lights faded away, leaving the bottom light on. The red light was on.”. Pastor asked me, “Do you know what the vision means?” I said, “Yes, I think God answered my prayer.”. I told Pastor that I was reading Psalms 90, verse 10, that the days of our lives are 3 scores and 10. 1 score is 20 years. 3 score and 10 means a person's average life is 70 years. I told God in my prayer that as I was 40 years old at this time, that was 2 scores. I prayed and ask that God will give me another 20 years to live, so that my children will, by then, be adults and be able to look after the mother. And I believed that in this vision, one red life represented a score - 20 years. And I have faith that God is going to give me to live for another 20 years. The second incident on 30 April, I attended a full gospel fellowship meeting at the old PUB auditorium. The speaker, who is from the Philippines, Pastor Eddie spoke on healing and quoted Exodus 15 : 26: if you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eye. Pay attention to His commands and keep all His decrees. I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians for I am the Lord who heals you. He shared how God healed his sister of brain tumor. At the end of his message, Pastor pointed me out from the audience and asked me to come down to the stage. I told him about my cancer, and when he prayed, I fell under the power of the Holy Spirit. When I woke up, he asked me about my experience. And then he said, “God has healed you, and you don't need chemotherapy.”. So at my next visit, I told the oncologist and the other two doctors that I will not go for the chemotherapy. They were very shocked and warned me of the grave consequences. They keep trying to persuade me that I should have chemotherapy. However, I stood firm in my decision - no chemotherapy. They even interviewed my wife to make sure that she was aware of the consequences of my decision.

The other thing that I did was I changed my diet. My Professor doctor said that one of the main causes of stomach cancer is having an all-meat diet, no vegetables. And that was true as since I was a kid, I hated vegetables. So I changed my diet for the next five years of my life. I only ate fish and vegetables without any meat at all. My lunch and dinner consist of miso soup, fish and vegetables. The vegetables that I ate are all steamed and so were the fish. That's how I lived for 5 years after my surgery. That helped a lot. 23 Feb 2024 was my 34th anniversary of my cancer diagnosis.

I was well and fine for many years after my surgery and I thought that it was all over. But another cancer hit me. On 2 August 2013, I had both urine and prostate specific antigen(PSA) tests done. My PSA reading was 4.9 but the upper limit is 4.0 so the urologist suspected that I may have prostate cancer. My PSA reading kept going up till it hits 14. My urologist decided that I should go for treatment and proposed to me that I can do either surgery or radiation. I decided to go for external beam radiation therapy and went for a total of 37 sessions from August to October. 2017. After radiation, my PSA result read 2.0 and today, on 15 February, 2024 the reading is 0.29. Again, it is God who healed me.

And then another major problem happened after the prostate cancer treatment. I had chronic diarrhoea. I had to rush to the toilet after every meal, no matter what I ate. And again, I was referred to the gastroenterology clinic at SGH. The doctor after subsequent tests and various examinations, came to the conclusion that I had irritable bowel syndrome. There was no treatment, and all I had to do was to adjust my lifestyle and to watch what I eat. They gave me ultra carbon tablets to take in case if I have diarrhoea. But it was sometime later in 2022, I met a friend who recommended me to come to visit Elixir Botanica. I met Rosemary, and she suggested that I try VigourCells(VC) since the gastroenterologist has given me probiotics to take. From then(Jun 2022) on until today, I have been regularly taking daily VC. My diarrhoea condition has improved. It has not stopped completely but the frequency has dropped. And I realized that every time I eat food that contains chilli sauce (whether bottled or chilli served in food stalls), like when I eat “mee pok ta” (dry noodles), my stomach could not take it as there might be some contamination in them. My wife then told me to stop taking chilli and see what happens. And true enough, once I stopped taking this type of chili sauces, there was much improvement. Diarrhoea still happens, especially if I eat deep- fried or oily food. I have since stopped taking fried kway teow and a lot of other spicy foods even though I am a Peranakan and chilli is a huge part of our diets. But I knew that I had to do it and by taking VigourCells as well, the diarrhoea has not reoccurred as frequent as before, only occasionally.

Now I live aware of this and kept to this type of diet. And as I said, since 1990 my meat intake has dropped, very rarely do I eat beef and very rarely do I take pork. The only meat I eat is chicken, which is easily digested. The reason why meat was not advised was that most animals from which we obtained the meat are fed with a lot of antibiotics to keep them healthy, to fatten them up. So try not to eat them, because the medications reside in the meat of the animals. And so when we as humans take it, they also form some form of reaction in our body such that they can cause medical issues. So I stopped taking other types of meat and even when I take chicken, I will always try to get “kampung” chicken unless I am outside and have to have a bit of other meats.

Looking back, I feel very thankful and grateful to my God knowing that I have lived for 35 years. There is an article that was written on 3 February 2011 in a Straits Times supplement called Mind Your body. My professor doctor stated this in the article, Odds of Surviving Cancer quote, “On the other hand, Mr. S, whom I operated on 20 years ago for Stage 4 stomach cancer, has remained well when the five years life expectancy was less than 10%.”. Mr. S referred to me because 11 years ago, that was in 1990, I went surgery under him, and as long as I know, I am the longest surviving patient of his, to-date on record, who had stomach cancer. And I thank God and I my wife especially for looking after me, forcing me to adopt the diet (that consists of vegetables) that I hated my whole life. But I believe eating well and eating the right food, is also a good habit which will help us to get well and be better. And I also want to thank Rosemary for her recommendation of VigourCells. As I have taken this daily with my probiotics, I feel much better energy-wise. My weight has not gone down. After my surgery, I lost 25 kg. I was down from 75 kg to 50kg. And then with my diet, I went down to as low as 47 – 45kg. Generally, it fluctuated within 45 to 50kg. But when I started taking VigourCells and with the improvement of my chronic diarrhoea, my weight is stabilized at around 52 kg. It has been that way for the last 2 to 3 years.

I hope that my sharing will give you all encouragement, knowing that although cancer is a deadly disease, but I believe that if you live the right way and if you eat well, I am sure you can also overcome this obstacle. There is nothing to be feared about cancer. Thank you.