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One-Year Old Baby With Advanced Heart Failure Hopes For Transplant

Aiden Chew will turn one on Thursday, and his dad’s greatest wish is for him to have a heart transplant.

Baby Aiden has advanced heart failure due to a complication from Kawasaki Disease. A massive heart attack in June had robbed the muscle of its function.

He is now on a temporary heart pump device, and will go for a Berlin Heart operation — the first in Singapore — scheduled in 1½ months’ time.

His mother Mrs Marie Chew, who is in her 30s, conceded that she struggled to come to terms with her first and only child’s condition initially.

“I wish it happened to someone else, not me,” the full-time caregiver caught herself thinking from time to time.

Four months on, Mrs Chew and her husband Jeremy are just glad that their little fighter is still alive despite all the obstacles.

They have agreed to share their story with The New Paper in hopes of raising awareness for organ donation for children.

Source: www.tnp.sg

October 5, 2015
Ridjal Noor – The Singaporean Behind GCSE Text Studied In UK

When Mr Ridjal Noor, 36, first wrote “Anil”, a short story about a boy living in India, he never expected that it would one day be studied by students in the United Kingdom.

“Anil”, published in 2004, is about a seven-year-old boy who witnesses a murder in his village and faces a moral dilemma: Should he tell the truth?

He said: “I didn’t even spend that much time writing “Anil”. It’s just surreal that there are students out there spending hours studying what I wrote.”

Mr Ridjal, who was an engineering student and now runs his own display stand and publishing company, credits his polytechnic communications lecturer, Ms Shirley Joseph, for discovering his talent and encouraging him to pursue writing.

Source: www.tnp.sg

October 5, 2015
Help Pours In For Cancer-Stricken Single Father

The plight of a single father of three children who could no longer work since he was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer touched many and there have been an outpouring of kindness to him.

Mr Goh Hoon Tiong, 44, is deeply grateful to the strangers who have reached out to him in various ways, be it in cash donation or in kind, such as groceries like rice, oil and biscuits.

Mr Goh, who used to work two jobs, says: “No matter how hard it is, I will fight and make it work. Who says a man cannot be a good parent.”

The pain he has to bear is evident from the way he sits — crouching in a ball, with his hands gripping his arms tightly. When the pain from a metal stent in his esophagus is too much to bear, he could not even talk.

He has been receiving a total of 30 sessions of chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment and will undergo a surgery to remove the tumour soon.

“For now, I’m just taking one step at a time. I hope to come out of the surgery alive,” he says.

Source: www.tnp.sg

October 4, 2015
MENDAKI Starts New Fundraising Drive For Education Trust Fund

The Council for the Development of Singapore Malay/Muslim Community (MENDAKI) is starting a new fundraising drive for its Education Trust Fund (ETF).

The target is S$12 million. There is currently S$6.4 million in the fund, which provides financial assistance to students from low-income Malay-Muslim families. About 67,000 students have benefitted from the fund so far.

At an appreciation lunch for MENDAKI partners on Saturday (Oct 3), Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim, who is also chairman of MENDAKI, called on about 250 partners to join him in a fundraising project to raise, or even surpass S$12 million.

The initial amount of the ETF was S$12 million, when it was first introduced in 2002. The money was raised by the fundraising committee led by the late Mr Abu Bakar Maidin, a social work veteran.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

October 4, 2015
Church Opens Its Gates So That Muslim Worshippers Can Park During Friday Prayers

<Facebook post by Yu Ran>

There is a mosque and a church next to each other in my neighborhood, because there isn’t any parking space around, the church opened its grounds so that Muslim worshippers can park during Friday prayers.

Little scenes like this in Singapore makes me proud to call Singapore my home and it reminds me that no matter how different we are as human beings everyone deserves a little parking space on this planet. — at Spiritual Grace Presbyterian Church 长老会灵恩堂

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

October 4, 2015