Man struggles to care for family
Salesman aids ailing mother and wife even as welfare remains scarce
KAMPAR: The Chai family leads a simple but happy life in Malim Nawar New Village here.
Their bond has grown stronger since 2016 when two of them had a close brush with death.
Chai Wai Hou, 29, said doctors at two private hospitals in Ipoh diagnosed his mother Teoh Hong Heong with breast cancer.
They proclaimed that she had only three weeks to live. That was in April 2016.
Six months later, his wife Chai Chuan Bau, 25, had a viral attack on her brain. She survived but has been memory- and speech-impaired since.
Teoh never gave up her battle with cancer. Now 61, she is a patient at Institut Kanser Negara (IKN).
“The people at IKN are very nice and reassuring,” said Wai Hou.
He said he found out about IKN while surfing the Internet.
He said Teoh went to IKN twice or thrice a month. Now, she can walk with the help of a stick.
Initially, Teoh was unable to walk as the cancer had affected her spine, Wai Hou recalled.
Looking back, Wai Hou said his father Chai Yoon Chong, who had oral cancer, died at 46 while combing the jungle for herbs to treat cancer. That was in 2003.
“My father was very frail then but never gave up. He was found dead under a tree,” said Wai Hou, who has two elder brothers and a younger sister.
On the attack on Chuan Bau, Wai Hou said it came without warning, except that she used to feel extremely tired prior to that.
She underwent numerous screenings in private hospitals and the bills chalked up an amount of RM70,000, he added.
Wai Hou said Chuan Bau, who goes for treatment in Ipoh’s Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun, had yet to be well enough to work. She was a clerk before she fell ill.
Chuan Bau now stays at home to care for her four-year-old son.
Wai Hou said Socso rejected Chuan Bau’s application for help.
“Socso said she can still move about, so she can’t claim,” he added.
With his RM2,000-odd monthly salary as a salesman in Bandar Baru Kampar, Wai Hou, who has a diploma in accounting, said his wife was a BR1M recipient.
While Teoh is also a BR1M recipient, he said the Welfare Department rejected her application for help.
Wai Hou said his sister Chai Xin Yee, 26, had to stay home to take care of their mother while he accompanied Teoh to IKN, about 200km from their home, for treatment.
“The journey is very tiring for her. We would go the night before so that she could rest before her treatment the next day. We would return home in the evening if everything is okay.”
Wai Hou hopes the Welfare Department and Socso could consider the family’s plight.