Beating the odds to emerge as cancer advocate
Gritty survivor recounts experience with the disease, trauma of chemotherapy sessions and surgeries to get back his health
PETALING JAYA: The challenge of fighting cancer may be too much for some, but others have fought the disease and lived to tell the tale.
For Mohamad Hilmi Zailan, 34, it started with acute stomach pains that began early this year.
He also experienced frequent diarrhoea and was vomitting up to four times a day.
At one point, he lost a total of 14kg in one week which left him tired and confused.
“I’m a fairly active person. I jog 5km every day in Rawang and I am a member of a running club. I was shocked when I was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer.”
He was speaking to theSun at Sunway Medical Centre Velocity hospital, where he had just undergone his ninth immunotherapy session.
Before that, he went through six cycles of chemotherapy and two surgeries.
The first was an emergency surgery to remove a blockage in his colon that affected his appetite. The blockage was the size of a small apple.
The second surgery was to remove 30cm of his colon and he had to temporarily use a stoma bag to defecate.
Instead of drowning in his sorrows, Mohamad Hilmi took it upon himself to learn more about his illness.
“I needed to know what I was facing,” he said, adding that his condition only pushed him to study the potential side effects he would face.
Initially, he weighed 60kg but dropped to 46kg during his chemotherapy sessions.
“The specialist decided to switch to immunotherapy, which would strengthen my immune system to fight the cancer cells,” he said.
While he was still on chemotherapy, he was able to continue teaching chemistry to his 40 students for almost six hours at a stretch.
“I started to gain confidence and shared my experience on Instagram @hilmizailan and joined a Facebook page called Kelab Pesakit Kanser Malaysia. It was good to know there is a support group for those in my situation.”
Today, Mohamad Hilmi has become a sought-after advocate of surviving cancer.
“A few people approached me for advice, seeing that I looked well despite the various treatments I had gone through.
“They inquired about the kind of food I was eating. In the past, I could only eat soft food and porridge.
“I’m able to eat semi-solid food for now but have cut out red meat. I believe cutting out red meat and incorporating immunotherapy in my treatment has helped to reduce my cancer cells,” he said.
In between these sessions, which last up to four hours, he would listen to music, including an old Malay pop song called Belaian Jiwa by the Carefree band.
“It helps to keep me from being stressed,” he said, adding that his wife Nurzeehan Ismail was with him during all his treatments.
In breaking the news to their two children, five-year-old Iman Madeena and seven-yearold Zulaikha, the couple explained that Hilmi would not be able to play with them as actively as he did before.
“Despite their age, my children understand that I’m unable to join them in their games. I try to spare them the fact that I am in pain at times,” he said.
In conjunction with “No-Shave November”, also known as “Movember”, Hilmi hopes that there will be more awareness spread about cancer, especially among men.
Movember is the month when a person puts aside the razor blade and embraces his hair, which many drop during chemotherapy.
According to the Health Ministry’s Malaysia National Cancer Registry Report 2012-2016, colorectal cancer is most common among men and the second most common cancer among women, with three in four individuals developing colon cancer at a later stage.