The Unsung Heroine

I have not written any article dedicated to anyone before. So this is one dedicated not to a classical hero but an unsung heroine whose sacrifices and the surmountable battles she faced throughout her fight with Neurofibromatosis (NF) 2, crowned her one. NF2 is an illness of the nervous system that causes numerous benign tumors to grow in her body and which deteriorate her body functions including her hearing.

I thought she is one biblical hero. Not withstanding the reality that more clusters of tumors are growing in precarious locations in her brain, spine and nerves, I can’t describe more the emotional and physical turmoil that NF has put her through. What put me in awe and inspiration is that during her current and supposedly lifetime struggle against the illness, she still manage to spread humanity. Her innate goodness and divine spark made some classical heroes who pursued success, power and wealth, a washout in comparison.

Can you imagine waking up each morning knowing these unknown tumors are living and growing in your body? Sorry to pose such a question. The fear that arises far outweighs my imagination. For that matter, I know I will cowardly choose not to wake up and sleep forever. She does not.

In Elie Wiesel’s book, “Night”, the Nobel Prize winner writer depicted in one of his horrifying surviving scene in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, where together with thousand of prisoners, they were supposed to move from one camp to another on foot in heavy snow storms. The troops of prisoners are commanded to run as fast as they could to reach the destination or face execution and death if they stayed behind.

Thousands of them ran along, slowing down would mean one will either be trampled on under the moving herd matching behind or froze to death in the bizarre winter.

Ran Elie did, without stopping for his mercy life. Despite days without proper food and an unhealed surgery on his foot, he sticked close to his beloved father whom he is determined not to leave behind. In his masterpiece, he brought forth the agony, anguish, injustice, and the delusion he faced during the prolonged ordeal.

As the only holocaust survivor in his family, he went through a life of darkness and extreme cruelity in a death camp, stripped of dignity, faced hunger, fought depression, seen living people being thrown to the fire furnaces and burnt to death – including his mum and sister. All these memories made clear his decision to write “Night” as a memoir. Although it was difficult to write, he is convinced that “what happened must not be forgotten.”

I see Yvoone Foong running a similar amazing race for survival, though facing a different adversity. I believed she never felt lonelier in her race, despite being cheered on by many of her avid readers of her blog and book. Yes, her vision flickers sometimes along the journey, but the inner light that she shines is unwavering and certain.

As a young adolescent, she has accomplished many and eludes righteousness and goodness in helping others.

She set up the Heart4Hope campaign.
Champion for her fellow unfortunate friends who needs help as much as she does.
Wrote a brilliant book and blog.
Endeavored to be a psychologist to help others.
Earned a Scholarship to study psychology.
'Ran aside' her beloved senile dad. She is the only child.
Started a medical fund to support her expenses.
Read her own lengthy medical reports and searches her own treatments.

I really can’t find better statements to articulate her story but I know she is one quiet heroine who partakes in God’s words and turn them to evergreen fruits while fighting for her life every day. This is the kind of heroism I honor. I hope the wonderful savior will bless her with infinite strength and crafts a path for her.

Read her story on http://www.yvonnefoong.com/


Help in anyway, if you can. Thanks.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."