Monday July 2, 2007
Mother’s sacrifices rewarded
By DERRICK VINESH
PENANG: Supporting a child in a private medical college can be a costly affair. The burden is even heavier for a single parent.
Kolej Tunku Abdul Rahman's Centre for Continuing Professional Education director Leong Eng Yee exhausted her life savings to fulfil her daughter Judith Wong Ju-Ming's dream to pursue medicine.
“When Judith was four years old, my husband died from cancer. He left us some money, but I still had to work to make ends meet.
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Proud mum: Leong admiring the awards Judith won in Penang |
“Now, I hope that she (Judith) will help take care of me when I grow old,” said Leong after Judith received her scroll at a Penang Medical College's ceremony at a hotel here yesterday.
Leong said she also sponsored the studies of her other daughter Adele, 36, and son Kenneth, 26, who pursued their higher education in Britain and Australia respectively.
Judith, 24, was among 92 students who completed their final examinations and were conferred medical degrees from the National University of Ireland.
They spent their first year in Penang and the next two-and-a-half years at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) or University College Dublin (UCD) for pre-clinical studies.
They returned to Penang for their final two-and-a-half years of clinical studies.
Judith said the course fees and living expenses for the six-year programme totalled RM500,000.
“Basically, I was looking for a profession that I would not feel bored with after 20 years of practising.
“To me, medicine was the most interesting and exciting course to do.
“Words cannot describe my gratitude to my mum for the many sacrifices she has made to raise my two siblings and me and to see us all through college,” she said.
Judith, who was the student valedictorian, also received the UCD-RCSI overall best student award and the Malaysian Medical Association (Penang branch) prize for best student in Medicine.
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