Cancer & The Final Journey Of Life

The word CANCER is the most dreadful word anyone would like to hear from their doctors. It was so scary and painful to most patients and their families. I am not a doctor for this topic but I have met so many patients. I consoled them, hugged them, fed them and fetched them everywhere in my car.

It all started in the year 2005 when my wife who has been a long time volunteer with Hospice Malaysia asked me to help her fetch a male cancer patient for blood transfusions one morning. He was bed ridden and my wife could not carry him up with both hands. I went along that morning to fetch the Chinese man called Andy. My heart sank when I saw him which looked like a bag of bones lying on his bed beside his Indian wife and pretty 6 year old daughter. I promptly carried him up gently and he tried very hard not to cry as his whole body was in agonizing pain. He was suffering from last stage of bone marrow cancer.

There was no turning back and Andy became my weekly friend where I had to fetch him to hospital for almost 2 years before he went to rest comfortably in heavens. I became active volunteer with Hospice and they assigned all their cancer patients in the entire Puchong, Cheras and other KL areas up to Putrajaya to me. My job was to fetch them all for various chemo treatments weekly at various hospitals in Klang Valley using my own transport and petrol. I was trained to handle them as many could barely walk properly. I was also told what not to speak with them - No Religions, No Politics, No Medicals, No MLM.... all these sensitive topics were forbidden unless the patient wished to speak them up.

Eventually, I became very famous after the full page articles appeared in Sin Chew Newspaper. Many people were touched and very moved to see the only "Husband & Wife" team doing this with Hospice. I learnt a lot about life and deaths after meeting so many friendly patients who shared all their happiness, sadness and regrets before going to better places. There were many sad cases where the patients had adult working children but they had no time for their parent's hospital visits. Never mind all that - Life is just a journey for everyone of us. 

"Let's live happily and healthily from now on."

When a patient is diagnosed with the last Stage 4 of cancer, the doctors would often recommend them to get in touch with Hospice which is a NGO located in Cheras. Here, they will be able to receive palliative care from a team of professional doctors, nurses and volunteers at no cost!! They could even loan the special beds, wheel chairs and any other equipments. If they are mobile, they would attend the weekly day care sessions.

Many patients from all races and age came to the weekly day care. They were fed with most delicious meals provided by the kind & caring volunteers besides getting their exercises and massages. The doctors and nurses also checked their progress on the spot. All the patients changed eventually with positive mind and happier hearts. Many lived very much longer than what their doctors had numbered.

The patients gathered around a Physiotherapist who explained the little games they would be playing.

They always enjoyed light exercise activities where they could move all their limbs and keep the blood circulation moving.

I always saluted the volunteers who appeared like God's angels sent from heavens to care and walk the final journey with the patients. They would go all out to cook all the most exotic food and sinful desserts for the patients to enjoy.

 

Many wealthy individuals would cook 5-Star gourmet food and delivered to the centre specially for the patients. There are many good and kind hearted care givers like them who preferred to be quiet and unknown. There is no need to crow on the trees for every little things that I have done. Please understand that I am here to share and create awareness about Hospice Care at my own accord.

We all know somebody who had suffered from cancer and seen the sufferings the whole family went through. If you ever meet someone again who might need help, please contact Hospice in KL or nearby your home state.

If you wish to live longer, I believe that we must exercise regularly and keep our body happy and stress-free! STRESS KILLS very fast and it would trigger all our cells to react negatively causing heart diseases and cancer.

My own motto:

1. Eat Healthily

2. Be Happy

3. Watch Movies

4. Exercise Daily

5. Go for Massage

My wife has signed up with the coming Standard Chartered's KL Marathon to raise funds for Hospice Malaysia. Please support and donate any amount to help them provide every care to the terminally ill patients. Even RM 2 or RM5 or RM10 would be greatly appreciated. We will not be able to know who the donors are or the amount donated, except the total raised anonymously by the runners. PLEASE HELP & click HERE  

 Thank you for reading!

Ancient Canals In Suzhou

We were supposed to visit Wuzhen where the Chinese folks still live by the ancient canals and run their daily chores in the laid back atmosphere. We had to miss it as it was too faraway from Shanghai.

We took this high speed train and went to Suzhou instead in less than 2 hours! We got off at the wrong station which was a highly industrialized areas of Suzhou. Look at all the green bicycles for rent! We took a taxi to the ancient canal areas which are located in 2 different spots. Look at how the taxi drivers shielded themselves from being bashed, knifed and even spat on!!!

 

This was the first touristy spot where we visited. It had rows of souvenir shops with an ancient garden and museum. The folks and youngsters were seen gambling openly by the roadsides. 

The fruit seller was selling mangoesteen and berries! 

Sorry for my blurry photos which became like that after grouping them.

This was the BEST FOOD I had in my whole trip in China. It was their native's Tau Foo Fah which added with light soya sauce and sprinkled with spring onions, dried shrimps, Pickled Chai-Por and etc. It was so heavenly unusual to eat tau Foo Fah that way.

I went to the museum because it was FREE entrance.

 I was very impressed by the huge size of the mansion with so many court yards which belonged to some high ranking magnates during the ancient times.
I was very disappointed with the old artifacts and antiques inside as they were boring stuffs.

Later we strolled along the canal banks and browsed through the many interesting shops.

 The mirror reflected-like canals looked nice with spring flowers everywhere!

 This must be the most popular Lover's Bridge as everyone fought tooth and nails to snap photos!
Look at my honey up there!

 Even wedding couples would come to pose with their studio photographers and crew in tow.
Look at her shocking red dress!!!
SO MERAH & HOT!

I stopped by this stall as the smell of the fragrant buns could tickle my nostrils from a mile away! I bought these Lion's Paws and ate them hungrily.
OMG!! I NEARLY BROKE ALL MY FRONT TEETH!!!

I bound my hands and bought nothing as I knew my itchy hands could not stop buying endless souvenirs! I must visit Wuzhen in future as they hardly have commercial shops in that area and you could still see old folks playing Chinese chess under the pine trees there!

Mount Jiuhua (Jiuhuashan - China) Part 2

This is the Part 2 of my hike up to Mount Jiuhua in China. The biggest surprise I had was to discover that the body of Dayuan DiZang Wang Pusa (Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva) was being kept inside a big temple atop this auspicious mountain! Best of all, he was born a Prince from the palace in Korea and traveled to this mountain in China a few thousand years ago! I will post about this temple in the final part of Mount Jiuhua. The last 2 other coming posts will show the beauty of Suzhou's Ancient Canal Village and Shanghai's Yu Yuan Gardens & Museums. I promise I will not bore you with no ending posts of China - That's not me!

Mount Jiuhua has got 99 peaks and over 90 different temples scattered all over the mountain range. I think we managed to cover about over 50%.

 Everywhere I climbed, the nature's scenery was beautiful in Spring.
Happiness is all around us!

Who has not sinned in this world?
Many pilgrims went up the mountain by kneeling down upon making few steps to
repent for all their bad sins and karma. It was so painful.

I was happy to see the special rainbow lights radiated blessings at these pilgrims.

 The panoramic view was awesome and spectacular.

 The rocks were beautiful and unique to me.
Looking at the heavenly light beams made me a changed person.

 Some treks had steps while many parts were rugged paths on the boulders.

Here a chief monk was showing a VIP around. I thought he could be a Governor of Anhui's rank as his protective bodyguard's entourage was attracting much attention.

 

 This is LIFE! We can choose our own paths.

The Chinese hikers are very determined to scale the mountains to worship. 

They carried canes and babies along the risky paths. I am just like them, 

always taking risks in my life.

The Spring Flowers and cool breeze made my trip enjoyable otherwise the rocks would be plain boring.
So we should eat ice cream often to make ourselves happy!

 

 I spent a lot of time people-watching and appreciating the shapes & colours in the temples.

 This temple keeps all the ancient Sutra books inside.

 We have made a wish to return again someday to visit all the 90 temples.

 

 I love this Zen photo very much. 

It speaks a thousand words. The monk knew that I stared at him from far and took many photos of him 360 degrees.