Students faced with personal struggles eager to give back
Darren Yeo (left), 16, from Damai Secondary School decided to work harder in school after seeing how hard his hawker parents had to work at their stall. Woodlands Secondary School student Nur Zahidah, 17, had suffered from liver problems from an early age. photos: Robin Choo, Wee Teck Hian / TODAY
SINGAPORE – His passion for art often distracted Darren Yeo from his studies. But a year ago, he decided that he had to pull his socks up if he wanted to support his hawker parents in their old age.
“When I was young, I wanted to (make a living from) drawing. That’s why I didn’t study hard. But in recent years I (have) started thinking that … if I don’t study, I won’t get a good life in future,” said the 16-year-old Damai Secondary School Normal (Technical) student.
It was later in secondary school that Darren discovered that he had a flair for Design and Technology – one of the three subjects he scored an ‘A’ for in his GCE N(T) Level exams.
Darren was among more than 16,000 students from the Secondary 4 Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) courses who received their N-Level results yesterday (Dec 17).
Describing himself as a poor performer since his primary school days, Darren said he started thinking about his future when he was in Secondary 3 after seeing how hard his parents had to work at their stall at a Bedok coffeeshop, selling Western food.
“I know it’s very tough and tiring (for them). When I grow up, I (want to) get a good job and (earn) more money so I can take care of them and give them a better life,” he added.
Darren, who plans to enrol in ITE College Central’s Product Design Course, said he is drawn to the course because of the opportunity to invent things that are “good and nice for people to use”.
Meanwhile, a liver transplant surgery and five other blood operations last year did not stop Nur Zahidah Khanum from completing her N-Level examinations with three subject passes.
The 17-year-old Woodlands Secondary student had suffered from liver problems since young.
In March last year, doctors found that Nur Zahidah was in the final stage of liver cancer, and had “only three months to live”, said her mother, Ms Norunnesah, 46.
Fortunately, an anonymous donor was able to provide the teenager with a compatible liver, and Nur Zahidah underwent a liver transplant not long after.
Ms Norunnesah said: “It was a miracle for her to get a new life, if not she (will not be) with us today.”
Having missed out on the bulk of her lessons in Sec 3, Nur Zahidah said she was able to catch up on her studies by making use of “a lot of assessment (books) and (doing) homework”, and getting a lot of help from her teachers.
“My teachers helped me a lot to (get me) to Sec 4, they gave me extra classes two to three times every week — especially for mathematics.”
Even as she strived to keep up with her lessons, Nur Zahidah had problems concentrating on her studies because of the medication she had to take after the surgery, which caused her to feel “giddy and drowsy”.
Given her struggles, Nur Zahidah said yesterday she was happy to have “at least three subject passes” — in Design and Technology, Malay language, and Computer Applications — for her N-Levels.
Now that she is in a stable condition, Nur Zahidah hopes to pursue her passion in nursing at ITE College East, and eventually obtain a nursing degree in London.
Ms Norunnesah said of her daughter: “She has experienced a lot in the hospital, and she hopes to treat the patients and care for them — just like how the nurses and doctors had cared for her.”
