Hong Kong cancer sufferer learns to open up about her illness – how others can learn from her
Diagnosed with a rare tissue cancer, Mandy Yau, 21, kept her illness from her friends for six years, but now bravely details her life through her Facebook page, and is determined to pack as much into life as she can in the time she has
Mandy Man-yi Yau was 15 when she found a lump on her leg and saw a doctor. She soon learned she had a rare tissue cancer – alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) – and it had spread to her lungs.
How a Hong Kong cancer sufferer keeps going – and helps others to do the same
Since then, she has endured surgery and six bouts of chemotherapy, and a year-long hiatus from secondary school. This strong-willed young woman refuses to ask the doctor about her prognosis, though.
“I never ask because I think it’s useless, it’s just a prediction, you will never know [how long you’ve got],” she said.
The news in 2011 hit the then teenager like a hammer blow, triggering a dark period. Her doctor’s callous reaction didn’t help. “‘Why are you crying? You should have prepared for death when I told you [in the previous visit] you have cancer,’ those were his exact words,” Yau recalls.
If I share my story including the bad experiences I had before, I hope other people will know what to do if they face the same situation
Some people simply have no grounding in how to interact with someone who is incurably ill, especially if they are an adolescent. During her absence from school, Yau became the subject of gossip and soon discovered the quality of her friends, one of whom remarked that she had taken a break to have an abortion.