Profile | Getting cancer twice inspired holistic nutritionist to put her mind and body at peace
- Denise Tam discovered she had stage-four lymphoma in 2009, which went into remission – only for it to return a year later. Since then she’s been cancer-free
- After 13 rounds of chemotherapy she turned to her faith, friends and family to help her recover instead and continues to work on her mental and emotional health
My parents knew each other as teenagers in Hong Kong and they both went to study in Toronto in Canada in the early 1970s. My dad was an engineer and my mother a librarian. My sister was born in 1980 in Toronto and I was born in 1983.
I grew up not knowing much about my Chinese roots, possibly even rejecting them. I didn’t speak a word of Chinese. I didn’t have a single Asian friend until Grade Six. In my teens, I coloured my hair blond and wore brown-coloured contacts.
My parents were very stressed and there was a lot of tension in the home. I think it took a toll on their marriage, there was a lot of arguing. My mum was a ticking time bomb and I’d always be on edge. I was the quieter one and my sister spoke out more, so we were treated differently.
Life of the party
I spent a lot of time as a child hiding, even hiding in my room under the covers, trying not to say anything. I was very quiet at the dinner table, especially if there had been arguments earlier in the day.