Ex-athlete sleeps in the streets to save money

A FORMER national football player has to live in the streets whenever he comes for treatment at the National Heart Institute (IJN) in Kuala Lumpur, reported Mingguan Malaysia.

The Penangite, who is in his late 40s, said he could not afford to stay at a hotel due to his dwindling savings since his heart condition worsened three years ago.

The man who used to play defence in the national football team as well as for several state contingents had to seek shelter along a five-foot way in Jalan Hang Lekiu.

“I can’t get a stable job due to my condition. I have been living like this whenever I come to Kuala Lumpur for my treatment at IJN in the past eight months.

“I don’t live here all the time. It’s only for a few weeks a month. Once my treatment is over, I go back to my hometown,” said the man who does not want to be named.

He said he would continue living like this until his scheduled surgery at the end of the month for a pacemaker to be put in his heart.

“I tried staying at the Kuala Lumpur Homeless Transit Centre in Jalan Pahang before.

“But my clothes and bag were stolen. So, I decided to keep living in the streets,” he said, adding his ex-wife and three children had no idea of his condition.

“I don’t want them to worry,” he said.

> It was a true “till death do us part” love story for Bera Madiran, 78, and his wife Siti Munah Damin, 66, who passed away in their sleep together on Saturday morning.

Major Malay dailies reported that the couple, from Kampung Chokro in Simpang Renggam, Johor, was found motionless by their youngest daughter.

The couple’s eldest son Mohamad Farid, 50, said his father, who was the imam of Masjid Jamek Simpang Renggam, would usually wake up before dawn to start work at the mosque.

“He did not wake up. So, my youngest sister tried to wake him up. But she found both our father and mother motionless,” he said, adding his parents were pronounced dead by paramedics who rushed to their home.

Bera had been suffered from diabetes while Siti Munah had lymphoma cancer. The couple were buried next to each other in the same grave at the Sungai Berumbung Muslim Cemetery.