PETALING JAYA, Feb 21 — Kelantanese woman Wee Nurailin Farissa felt like the world was against her when she was diagnosed with stage 4 Lymphoma two years ago.
Wee Nurailin, 25, who hails from Gua Musang, told Malay Mail she was heartbroken and wondered how she was going to go through the many chemotherapy sessions.
“I really felt like giving up on life but I knew I had to be strong for my four-year-old daughter.
“I had to fight my cancer no matter what as I feared that she would grow up without a mother.”
Now, she has to pay for the cost of her stem cell transplant amounting to RM10,000 at the end of last year at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) hospital.
She added that while her earlier first few chemotherapy cycles were free because her husband was a member of the army and a government servant, she had to pay for the subsequent chemotherapy cycles.
“I wondered how I was to support the family as my husband was only an army member while I had to give up my clerk job as it was too strenuous for me.
“And that was when I decided to sell cookies and sell bundle clothes online to help pay for my subsequent chemotherapy sessions.”
Starting from scratch, Wee Nurailin learnt how to bake cookies and managed to get customers to buy her clothes from her online bundle store — and collected RM3,000.
“I remember learning how to bake through watching YouTube channels and there were many times where I had failed to produce the right consistency of cookies and had to throw away the bad cookies.
“I also started a crowdfunding campaign online last year and was appreciative that many people donated RM7,000 — which was able to pay for the stem cell transplant.”
This year, she has to undergo four more chemotherapy cycles amounting to RM68,000 — which she is able to pay in batches.
She said that she is improvising her cookies to make flavoured ones and is learning how to make cakes with the hopes that more people will support her.
“I have to say that I have a very supportive family — but I don’t want to overburden my mother and husband as they’ve sacrificed a lot of their time for me.
“I want to be independent and I know that I’m able to do what I can in my own capacity and I do hope that the Social Welfare Department (JKM) will also be able to give me some cash aid,” she said.
The 25-year-old has also been posting educational materials on her TikTok account to educate the public about fighting cancer.
