Lee: I wanted to fulfil wish of donor’s dad

Carmen’s teacher, who has never met me before, said that there were similarities in both our characters, including the way I talk.

Serene Lee

GEORGE TOWN: The first thing that Serene Lee read after her heart transplant operation was a report about an 18-year-old girl donating her organs.

But little did she know that Carmen Mark was the donor, and she only realised much later that she was one of her eight organ recipients.

Lee, 37, a mother of a boy aged 17 and two girls aged 14 and seven, said she then tracked down Carmen’s father Mark Kok Wah on Facebook.

“I saw his postings about how much he wanted to hear his daughter’s heartbeat.

“And, for the past two years I didn’t have peace because I wanted so much to fulfil his wish.

“I suspected that she was my heart donor,” Lee said yesterday.

Lee said she would know when anyone had a heart transplant because she was president of the heart patients support group at the National Heart Centre Singapore.

On Friday, Lee finally met Mark, 46, and his wife Ariess Tan, 43, during an emotional gathering in Penang.

Lee added that she enjoyed her four-day stay in Penang as everyone was warm towards her.

She said even Mark’s mother Lee Siew Ngor, 73, who was against the decision to donate Carmen’s organs after her death in 2015, started warming up to her.

“Carmen’s teacher, who has never met me before, said that there were similarities in both our characters, including the way I talk,” Lee said after visiting Penang Chinese Girls’ High School where Carmen studied.

Lee also developed a new liking for coffee after the heart transplant.

“I didn’t take coffee before because my body did not react properly to it,” she said.

Lee flew back home to Singapore later yesterday.

On Saturday, Mark and Tan took Lee to the spot where they spread Carmen’s ashes at the Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah Bridge.

All of them cried as they floated flowers onto the sea below the bridge.

On Sunday, Lee attended a “Gift of Life” programme at Wisma Hui Yin, 30, Lintang Paya Terubong 3.

Emotional moment: Lee (wearing spectacles) hugging Tan as Mark looks on at the Penang International Airport before Lee boarded her flight back to Singapore.