Life The Universe And Everything

By the time she was 29, Esther Khong was already an entrepreneur, had launched an app, dealt with a painful break up, and made peace with her past. All while battling cancer.

- Hoe I Yune

I was diagnosed with stage one cancer in April 2017 when I was 29. I was very blessed, because when the doctor tested it, it had already turned aggressive, so if I had waited longer, it would’ve progressed to other stages. You don’t really have time to process it; you don’t really have a choice because if you don’t do anything, you’re going to die.

I didn’t tell a lot of friends. I just told a close circle of friends and my family. I have three siblings, and I’m the second child. The last thing I needed was to worry about five other people, but my dad and sisters were crying.

I had to have a mastectomy because it was the right thing to do for my survival, but emotionally, it was another thing.

What my family showed me in the process, though, was that no matter what happened, they’d be there for me.

THE DIAGNOSIS

The doctor gave me the option of doing a lumpectomy – it would still leave me some sensation in the affected area, which is important to many women my age. But I had other concerns: A lumpectomy would require me to be exposed to radiation, and could give rise to a second cancer. If you still have tissues in the area that could turn cancerous, the fact is that you could get cancer again, and it would be even harder to detect. I really didn’t want to be fearing that I could have it again 30 or 40 years down the road. I just felt the wise thing to do was a full mastectomy. This would reduce potential risk to less than 1 per cent.

The second opinion I got confirmed these fears, and I scheduled an operation for the next month.

OPERATION