Fan Sau-woon
In July last year, Fan Sau-woon's breast bled non-stop. Doctors diagnosed it as breast cancer. 'I was clumsy and would fall over all the time. My breast sometimes bled but I thought it was because of the falls,' she said.
Tests revealed that Ms Fan, 56, had intestinal cancer as well as breast cancer. Fortunately the two were not related and the breast cancer had only spread to a few lymph nodes but not to any of her organs.
She had an operation to remove the intestinal tumours and since then has had to carry a colostomy bag, which collects her faecal matter via an opening in her intestines.
The intestinal cancer treatment was straightforward and simple compared to her breast cancer treatment.
She tried two different kinds of chemotherapies. The first was a six-course treatment, for free, and the second was another six-course treatment - which cost her HK$16,000. But neither had any significant effect.