Book launching speech

Great morning to you all. Very nice weather we have today. I am very grateful to all of you who took this beautiful morning off to attend this event.

I would like to thank Perpustakaan Negara for giving me the opportunity to launch and share with you the contents of my book today.

I would also like to thank you my friends for coming along. Hi Jimmy Ch’ng, thanks for coming. Hi Soo Hoo, long time no see! For those who doesn’t know me. I am James Oh and am proud to present my book here ‘Çancer: My wake up call’.
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A brief history about me. I started Lift You Up Plt nearly two years ago, a training company specialising in finance, wealth creation and thinking skills. Our mission is to inspire and motivate you to be well equipped to meet any challenges to accomplish your passions. The journey Lift You Up had given me as much motivation as it had given the people and my clients. This is my sole reason why I can stand proud today.
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Ladies and Gentlemen,
How do you perceive Cancer? Is it a demoralizing and destructive illness? How many of you think it is. Please raise your hands. How many of you think otherwise?
To be honest, I was as fearful when I hear the news as I cannot imagine how I could survive without a stomach. But in fact, it is not as fearful. This is because I lack knowledge of this illness at that time.
It all began when I constantly had stomach discomfort and my stomach was always bloated as if there were lots of wind in my stomach even though I took small amount of food. I did consult my family doctor but he always assured me that everything was alright and prescribed me medication for gastric re flux for nearly a month. However I continue to experience a lack of appetite, bloating in my tummy and tiredness. My daughter kept pushing me to consult a specialist.

Subsequently, on July 24, 2017, I was advised to go for an endoscopy after the unfavourable result of my blood test. The diagnosis after endoscopy was a high possibility of the big C..... of the stomach.
On August 1, 2017 when I was told by the Gastronomic doctor that I had the big C... I was baffled and was not ready to accept the facts at that time. I was shocked beyond words. Finally, I came to my senses and could not help but shed some tears. Why me? Why me! I cried silently to God. What did I do to deserve this?
After berating myself for some time, I realised that asking why would not solve anything. I have to look for treatment and to get rid of this unpleasant tumour in my stomach. The doctor found a tumour which was about 5 to 6 cm, located at the bottom of my stomach and also covered part of my intestine making it difficult for food to pass through. This explained the bloating of my tummy. The CT scan showed also that the tumour had also spread to my pancreas.

Ladies and gentlemen
I am not going to lie, treating cancer is indeed extremely costly. It does not only require surgery but also other treatments for example chemotherapy, radiotherapy and so on. It is going to take a long time and also costs a lot of money. If you do not have insurance, it is going to drain your pocket. Yes there will be tremendous side effects too. I was in a dilemma. How was I going to tell my family especially the two kids who needed me to fund their tertiary education? A myriad of questions flashed through my mind. I was devastated and unable to deal with this situation. I prayed to the Lord to calm me down before I drove home.

A CT and MRI Scan were then done. I had to consult a surgeon and the Gastrologist insisted that I should have an operation soonest possible. A major operation was done to remove 60% of my stomach together with some parts of the pancreas and fourteen lymph nodes on August 14. With a
smaller stomach, I can only eat less but more often. I also need to chew my food properly for easy digestion, instead of my bad habit of walloping my meal. You see I now have the luxury of slowly enjoying my food.

However 3 out 14 of my lymph nodes were found to be cancerous. I had waited too long for the diagnosis and the cancer has spread from the stomach to other organs. The surgery was not the end of my journey. I had to consult an oncologist to discuss follow up treatments.
I went to see a few oncologists and finally made the decision to have the chemotherapy done at University Malaya Specialist Centre (UMSC)’s private wing.

My first chemotherapy was not a smooth one. The drip caused numbness to my arm. After that I suffered nausea and vomiting. It was like going through hell. I felt like giving up. I shared with other big C....patients and they confirmed they too experienced similar effects.

Thanks God for sustaining and guiding me to seek help from Hospis (A NGO organization which offer medical assistance to cancer patients.). They came and gave me some steroid injections. Slowly, all the discomforts and sufferings dissipated. As a result I lost a further 3 kg a week after my first chemotherapy. After that I stopped the treatment with consent from my oncologist and decided to look for alternative treatment.

However, after 3 weeks my oncologist asked me to return. He was very disappointed with me and gave me an ultimatum to continue or not. If I continue he told me my survival rate would only be 20% based on the latest findings from more than 10,000 stomach patients of various stages. He foresee that I was going to crash soon. I had at most 6 months to a year to live. So depressing!

I strongly believe that God will be merciful to me and allow me to be in the 20% group who survived.
I decided to persevere and have great confidence that my Lord will give me the required strength to pull through in order that I can inspire and motivate others to ease their journey. Praise The Lord. My Subsequent 3 treatments went smoothly.

However after the 3rd treatment my oncologist decided to increase my dosage in view of my near perfect blood test results and performance. The toxins from the drug have affected my liver as seen from the blood test. I was given supplements for a month to protect my liver. However, the increased dosage of Xeloda led my platelet counts to drop. This led to bleeding when I passed motion as the blood could not clot. As a result my surgeon prescribed additional meditation and supplement to help increase the platelet level.

I have two fold intentions for these books. First, to share my insightful experience with my fellows with the intention to offer them an inspiration and view this adversity as a bend, not the end. Always remember there is no rainbow without a storm, as reflected in the book cover.

Secondly it is to donate a small portion of the sales proceed to the cancer Community through book sales, as a living proof that we can live independently and financially through our labour of love. Let us unite together and turn this adversity into opportunity. It further affirms; the big C ....cannot cripple love, It cannot shatter hope, It cannot corrode faith, if you decide to choose it as an inspiration as I did.

Summary of Cancer: My Wake Up Call

Mr. James Oh is a cancer survivor in his fifties. His book Cancer: My Wake Up Call, published by Silverfish. Books details his journey from the time he was diagnosed with stage-3 stomach cancer, and the trials and tribulations he went through during his treatments.

This book is about James’s challenges and side effects of chemotherapy and surgery, his overwhelming dilemma of having to choose the best treatment from so many possibilities in a very short time as his cancer cells then were very aggressive, eventually opting for the holistic approach, and all the time seeking God’s guidance.

He relates how his illness served him his wake-up call to change his sedentary lifestyle to a more active and healthy one, how with his smaller stomach after surgery, he eats less but more frequently, walking 100 steps after meal, and incorporating qigong and meditation into his new life style.

Eventually, James lost 60% of his stomach and suffered intense and horrific side effects of chemotherapy. He relates how he initially wanted to give up when his oncologist presented him with the current dismal statistics; only 20% of the patients survived more than five years after completing their chemotherapy.

But he was confident that God was with him. To distract his mind from the bad news, he decided to pen this book. He hopes that it will give readers some tips on how to battle fearful illnesses like the Big-C, and to share lessons he has learned from this journey. Also, not forgetting his social obligations, he is committed to donate a percentage of proceeds from the sales of this book to the Cancer Community.

He affirms that the importance of his 4Gs approach that helped him combat the negative emotions of anger, fear and frustration and move forward into the dark unknown territory in cheer.

It was indeed a blessing that he was able to see things from the appropriate perspective.

It took him enormous courage to break news of his illness to his beloved family, at a time when his two younger children were still depending on him for financial support.

The author believes that he can reap the fruits of the rainbow when he completes this James’s entire painful journey is reflected by the painting on the cover of the book, with the dark foreboding trees representing his suffering and fear, and the rainbow his ultimate reward. His victory or otherwise was dependent only on God's mercy and grace. Nothing is impossible with God.