Cancer patient pleads for financial assistance

Phoong (second right) with Tong (second left) and her husband and mother.

23 Oct 2021

By Ilona Andrew

KOTA KINABALU: Kota Kinabalu resident cancer patient Tong Poh Yuk is trying her best to navigate her way through the cruel hand that life has dealt her, however, she is buckling under the pressure as she fights to stay on top of her circumstances.

The 34-year-old mother of two was diagnosed with lymphoma and was advised to go for immunotherapy treatment that requires a total of RM16,000 per treatment, but now she is financially constrained.

To make matters worse, she is required to undergo this particular treatment six times to complete the cycle.

With this heavy concern in mind, Tong had reached out to Luyang State Assemblyman Phoong Jin Zhe to seek donations from the public.

In a press conference today, Phoong said he learned that Tong’s husband Foo Tze Cheng has left his sales job to commit to taking care of her, therefore he is not able to fund the high expenses.

Phoong explained that Tong could not undergo an operation to remove her large neck nodes due to medical complications.

“We don’t know whether this (pembrolizumab) therapy would be effective for her situation. The most important thing now is to ensure that the cancerous cells and neck nodes would not expand so that the doctors would have more options to remove the cancerous cells,” he said.

Meanwhile, Foo said Tong was first diagnosed with tongue cancer in June 2020 but six months later, cancerous cells have also infected her neck.

He revealed that his family has spent a great RM30,000 for the chemotherapy treatment alone.

A temple in Donggongon has already donated RM10,000 to his wife to fund her first pembrolizumab treatment which will be conducted in Likas Hospital.

The public can make donations to Foo Tze Cheng (Public Bank Berhad: 4479267112) and contact him at +60 10-828 5962 for further information.