When Yuting graduated with her Bachelor of Nursing, she was full of dreams - helping others in the Emergency Department, building her career, and one day starting a family of her own.
But early one Spring, everything changed. After experiencing bouts of severe abdominal pain, scans revealed a large tumour in her colon.
And just as she was starting her nursing career, Yuting suddenly found herself on the other side of the hospital bed - as a patient.
Her medical training helped her understand the diagnosis, but nothing could soften the shock. Yuting looked into every possible option, determined to fight. But the immunotherapy treatment that offered her the best chance of recovery was financially out of reach. The only alternative, chemotherapy, threatened her dream of becoming a mother someday.
“I was desperate,” Yuting recalls. “I wanted to live, but I also wanted to have a future, a family.”
At that critical moment, her oncologist, Dr Cameron McLaren, turned to St John of God Foundation to help Yuting access the treatment she needed.
Thanks to the kindness of donors, Yuting began immunotherapy, and for the first time in months, there was hope.
Month by month, the tumour began to shrink.
Nearly three years later, Yuting received the news she had been wishing for, she was disease-free.
In the time since, life has flourished. Yuting married her love, Daniel, and welcomed their first baby, a little boy named Cameron, in honour of the oncologist who fought so hard to give her a second chance at life.
“I am so grateful to have met Dr McLaren and to receive the treatment made possible through St John of God Foundation,” Yuting says. “Your donations gave me hope when I had none. You’ve not only helped me, but my family and everyone I will go on to care for as a nurse. I promise to pay it forward, and to raise my son to be kind and give back to others.” Dr McLaren shares, “Her case will absolutely be one of the highlights of my career. Everyone who contributed should be proud, you didn’t just save a patient, you helped build a family.”