Yvonne Foong

A few years back I had read in the newspapers about Yvonne Foong, a young girl with Neurofibromatosis, an inherited disorder where multiple tumours grow in the brain and along the spine. She was 16 when diagnosed with this condition and instead of going into self pity she wrote a book entitled "I'm Not Sick, Just A bit Unwell".

A few days ago I was at the hair salon getting a hair perm and was flipping through a magazine when I came across an article about her, but that article was written in 2006, so I looked up the internet to see how she was doing. I found her blog and she has accomplished much in the last few years, all listed here. Currently she is a university student and upon graduation she aspires to become a psychologist and therapist providing support to children with hearing aids.

What inspired me to write about Yvonne is her optimism despite all that she has gone through - she has undergone 8 major surgeries from 2002 till 2009, she almost went blind and her hearing has been badly affected by the disease, yet she does not depend solely on charity but raises funds on her own for her very costly surgeries (between RM90,000 to RM200,000 each!) by selling custom-made t-shirts, and a few days ago she posted on her blog that she is going to sell mooncakes to pay for her trip to the US to take part in a 4-year clinical research program that studies the long-term development of Neurofibromatosis Type 2.

Have a look at her blog post entitled "Mooncakes For Health" and let's do our bit to help someone in need. I'll be placing my orders soon.