<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Belief in a better life keeps her going
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Ms Do Lern Hwei, 40, has managed to cope with her mental illness. She is now a nurse at a seniors' centre and gets to see her son Qi Ern, eight, who is in foster care, on weekends. -- PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Ms Do Lern Hwei first knew there was 'something wrong' with herself when she could not keep up in school.
She dropped out of her second-year accountancy course in the former Nanyang Technological Institute in 1989 and went to Perth to pursue a commerce degree. But that did not work out either.
A psychiatrist that student services in Perth referred her to thought she was suffering from a personality disorder.
It was only 10 years later that she was diagnosed, by the IMH (Institute of Mental Health), to be suffering from schizophrenia.
In between, she met a Bangladeshi construction supervisor who got her pregnant and left her when his work permit was cancelled.
Her parents sent her to Rose Villa, a shelter for single mothers, and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports put her son in foster care.
She also spent 11/2 months in remand for trespassing in a synagogue.
It was then that she was referred to IMH and finally diagnosed.
She continues to take medication.
'My friends kept telling me I was sick. That hurt me. They left me alone after that,' said the 40-year-old, who now works as a nurse at Queenstown Multi-Service Centre for the Elderly.
Despite her rocky road to getting her life back on track, she said she feels 'blessed' because her sickness is not severe.
'Some people hear voices. I just didn't cope well with people,' said Ms Do, who lives in a rented two-bedroom flat in Bukit Merah with three others who also have mental illness.
She has been a cleaner, kitchen hand, a cook and clinic nurse, often keeping her prison record and mental illness from her employers for fear they would discriminate against her.
However she could not hold down a job because employers felt she was anti-social and did not take instructions well.
But the belief that 'there's always something better for me' has kept her going.
She has made new friends in church and now sees her eight-year-old son, Qi Ern, on weekends.
She hopes to complete a degree in accountancy and start a family though she concedes it is not easy 'for a mentally ill person like me to have a relationship'.
But she is hopeful. 'My son told me he needs company,' she said.
Her one other wish is that society will accept people like her.
'I hope they will feel we are still able to contribute to society and are not just people who will create a nuisance and use public funds,' she said.
Tan Dawn Wei
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Ms Do Lern Hwei, 40, has managed to cope with her mental illness. She is now a nurse at a seniors' centre and gets to see her son Qi Ern, eight, who is in foster care, on weekends. -- PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Ms Do Lern Hwei first knew there was 'something wrong' with herself when she could not keep up in school.
She dropped out of her second-year accountancy course in the former Nanyang Technological Institute in 1989 and went to Perth to pursue a commerce degree. But that did not work out either.
A psychiatrist that student services in Perth referred her to thought she was suffering from a personality disorder.
It was only 10 years later that she was diagnosed, by the IMH (Institute of Mental Health), to be suffering from schizophrenia.
In between, she met a Bangladeshi construction supervisor who got her pregnant and left her when his work permit was cancelled.
Her parents sent her to Rose Villa, a shelter for single mothers, and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports put her son in foster care.
She also spent 11/2 months in remand for trespassing in a synagogue.
It was then that she was referred to IMH and finally diagnosed.
She continues to take medication.
'My friends kept telling me I was sick. That hurt me. They left me alone after that,' said the 40-year-old, who now works as a nurse at Queenstown Multi-Service Centre for the Elderly.
Despite her rocky road to getting her life back on track, she said she feels 'blessed' because her sickness is not severe.
'Some people hear voices. I just didn't cope well with people,' said Ms Do, who lives in a rented two-bedroom flat in Bukit Merah with three others who also have mental illness.
She has been a cleaner, kitchen hand, a cook and clinic nurse, often keeping her prison record and mental illness from her employers for fear they would discriminate against her.
However she could not hold down a job because employers felt she was anti-social and did not take instructions well.
But the belief that 'there's always something better for me' has kept her going.
She has made new friends in church and now sees her eight-year-old son, Qi Ern, on weekends.
She hopes to complete a degree in accountancy and start a family though she concedes it is not easy 'for a mentally ill person like me to have a relationship'.
But she is hopeful. 'My son told me he needs company,' she said.
Her one other wish is that society will accept people like her.
'I hope they will feel we are still able to contribute to society and are not just people who will create a nuisance and use public funds,' she said.
Tan Dawn Wei
Now you know why FTs are a necessity!
