Help Madam Zhou Fight Colon Cancer
Story
Updates
69
Donations
2.1k
Testimonials
16
Top Givers
Help my loving mother recuperate from colon cancer and depression
My mother, Agustina, or known as Madam Zhou was diagnosed with colon cancer Stage 4 in February 2021.
She noticed that there was blood in her stool and so she went for a further checkup in hometown, Tanjungpinang, a small city in Bintan, Indonesia. Local facilities and hospital equipment were insufficient to derive a conclusive result, so the doctor advised for her to be brought to neighbour town in Batam, Indonesia. Despite knowing that Singapore is the best choice, we did not dare to bring her to Singapore immediately for treatment due to her being a foreigner and has neither pension fund nor health insurance of any kind.
The doctor from Batam was unable to proceed with further treatment as well, for the same reason, lack of required facilities and equipment. It was estimated that nearly 80% of the colon was blocked due to the cancerous tumour.
Our family decided to go ahead and bring her into Singapore despite not knowing where the funds are going to come from. We knew that there would not be government subsidies as she is an Indonesia citizen, but our first thought was to save her.
There were border regulations implemented in February 2021 due to Covid-19, and to apply for Madam Zhou’s entry into Singapore, we needed a doctor’s guarantee letter. After asking around, a kind doctor from Gleneagles was willing to help us go through all the paperwork, procedure and be the guarantor.
Given Madam Zhou is not a local Singaporean, she would not be eligible for public hospital’s subsidised rates, thus the costs would not differ much from a private hospital.
We then decided to proceed with the process of her entry into Singapore.
She arrived in Singapore via ferry from Batam and was directly admitted to Gleneagles on 01 Feb 2021. She started her mandatory quarantine of 14 days on the same day. Upon discussion with doctor-in-charge, it was decided to urgently proceed with the surgery to remove infected parts of her colon that had 80% blockage and at the same time saving hospitalisation costs since by law, she was mandatory to be quarantined in the hospital.
Her first colon surgery was done on 06 Feb 2021. She was discharged on 14 Feb 2021 upon serving her 14 days stay-“hospital”-notice.
This Gleneagles bill totalled to $70,000, out of which we have already paid $18,000. The $18,000 paid was taken out of our little savings, but mostly borrowed from our relatives.
As the cancer had already spread to her lungs and liver, we were advised by the colorectal specialist to continue treatment with an oncologist.
After consultation with an oncologist at National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), we decided to continue treatment for Madam Zhou even though we are still unsure of how we were going to obtain the necessary funds. All we knew at that time was, life was way more valuable than monies.
Her sessions of chemotherapy started with NCCS. After 4 sessions of treatment, along with many laboratory tests and CT scan, the oncologist informed us that Madam Zhou’s body reacted well to the treatment and infected nodes in her lungs have disappeared. Cancerous liver spots have shrunk as well so then it was a good time for another surgery to remove these infected liver parts.
We knew this was going to be another heavy burden for us, but still being hopeful that there would be ways out, we proceeded with this second surgery. The surgery was done on 10 Jun 2021 at SGH, and the total bill amounted to $27,000, out of which $19,500 was paid as deposit (partial deposit fund was from my Medisave, but there was a cap imposed, so we had to go around and borrowed from our relatives again). The balancing amount of $7,000 is still outstanding.
After this surgery, the NCCS oncologist advised for another 4 chemotherapy sessions and a CT scan afterward to determine whether further treatment is necessary. So currently, Madam Zhou is undergoing chemotherapy once every 3 weeks. She is grateful, but unfortunately she slides into depression.
In August 2021, chemotherapy costs of the 5 sessions that Madam Zhou has gone through thus far were also finalised and billed. After utilising my Medisave, the net total amounted to $7,500. I was granted Singapore permanent residency in 2018 and converted citizenship to Singaporean in 2020 and, have been working only for a couple of years, so my Medisave could barely cover all these costs.
We have almost emptied our saving but still, it seems insignificant compared to the hefty outstanding amount that we are owing to Gleneagles, SGH and NCCS, aside from the current ongoing chemotherapy, blood test and scans costs. We have no choice but to reach out to public for support as we are truly overwhelmed by these outstanding liabilities and ongoing costs.
We are depressing day by day and are reaching a hopeless state.
We are gravely looking forward to having a helping hand to support us on our financial hardships please. Your donation reignites our hopes in this overwhelming period.
Sincerely thank you for your generosity and kindness in helping my mother and our family.
All funds will be directly paid to the hospitals and National Cancer Centre Singapore.
Story
Updates
69
Donations
2.1k
Testimonials
16
Top Givers
Help my loving mother recuperate from colon cancer and depression
My mother, Agustina, or known as Madam Zhou was diagnosed with colon cancer Stage 4 in February 2021.
She noticed that there was blood in her stool and so she went for a further checkup in hometown, Tanjungpinang, a small city in Bintan, Indonesia. Local facilities and hospital equipment were insufficient to derive a conclusive result, so the doctor advised for her to be brought to neighbour town in Batam, Indonesia. Despite knowing that Singapore is the best choice, we did not dare to bring her to Singapore immediately for treatment due to her being a foreigner and has neither pension fund nor health insurance of any kind.
The doctor from Batam was unable to proceed with further treatment as well, for the same reason, lack of required facilities and equipment. It was estimated that nearly 80% of the colon was blocked due to the cancerous tumour.
Our family decided to go ahead and bring her into Singapore despite not knowing where the funds are going to come from. We knew that there would not be government subsidies as she is an Indonesia citizen, but our first thought was to save her.
There were border regulations implemented in February 2021 due to Covid-19, and to apply for Madam Zhou’s entry into Singapore, we needed a doctor’s guarantee letter. After asking around, a kind doctor from Gleneagles was willing to help us go through all the paperwork, procedure and be the guarantor.
Given Madam Zhou is not a local Singaporean, she would not be eligible for public hospital’s subsidised rates, thus the costs would not differ much from a private hospital.
We then decided to proceed with the process of her entry into Singapore.
She arrived in Singapore via ferry from Batam and was directly admitted to Gleneagles on 01 Feb 2021. She started her mandatory quarantine of 14 days on the same day. Upon discussion with doctor-in-charge, it was decided to urgently proceed with the surgery to remove infected parts of her colon that had 80% blockage and at the same time saving hospitalisation costs since by law, she was mandatory to be quarantined in the hospital.
Her first colon surgery was done on 06 Feb 2021. She was discharged on 14 Feb 2021 upon serving her 14 days stay-“hospital”-notice.
This Gleneagles bill totalled to $70,000, out of which we have already paid $18,000. The $18,000 paid was taken out of our little savings, but mostly borrowed from our relatives.
As the cancer had already spread to her lungs and liver, we were advised by the colorectal specialist to continue treatment with an oncologist.
After consultation with an oncologist at National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), we decided to continue treatment for Madam Zhou even though we are still unsure of how we were going to obtain the necessary funds. All we knew at that time was, life was way more valuable than monies.
Her sessions of chemotherapy started with NCCS. After 4 sessions of treatment, along with many laboratory tests and CT scan, the oncologist informed us that Madam Zhou’s body reacted well to the treatment and infected nodes in her lungs have disappeared. Cancerous liver spots have shrunk as well so then it was a good time for another surgery to remove these infected liver parts.
We knew this was going to be another heavy burden for us, but still being hopeful that there would be ways out, we proceeded with this second surgery. The surgery was done on 10 Jun 2021 at SGH, and the total bill amounted to $27,000, out of which $19,500 was paid as deposit (partial deposit fund was from my Medisave, but there was a cap imposed, so we had to go around and borrowed from our relatives again). The balancing amount of $7,000 is still outstanding.
After this surgery, the NCCS oncologist advised for another 4 chemotherapy sessions and a CT scan afterward to determine whether further treatment is necessary. So currently, Madam Zhou is undergoing chemotherapy once every 3 weeks. She is grateful, but unfortunately she slides into depression.
In August 2021, chemotherapy costs of the 5 sessions that Madam Zhou has gone through thus far were also finalised and billed. After utilising my Medisave, the net total amounted to $7,500. I was granted Singapore permanent residency in 2018 and converted citizenship to Singaporean in 2020 and, have been working only for a couple of years, so my Medisave could barely cover all these costs.
We have almost emptied our saving but still, it seems insignificant compared to the hefty outstanding amount that we are owing to Gleneagles, SGH and NCCS, aside from the current ongoing chemotherapy, blood test and scans costs. We have no choice but to reach out to public for support as we are truly overwhelmed by these outstanding liabilities and ongoing costs.
We are depressing day by day and are reaching a hopeless state.
We are gravely looking forward to having a helping hand to support us on our financial hardships please. Your donation reignites our hopes in this overwhelming period.
Sincerely thank you for your generosity and kindness in helping my mother and our family.
All funds will be directly paid to the hospitals and National Cancer Centre Singapore.
