Hello friends! Last week, we heard of Shaun’s painful struggle with cancer. In this episode, Jimmy shows his strong determination to save his son. Will all his efforts pay off?  Meanwhile, with the help of his church friends, let’s find out how Shaun’s life become transformed, even as his health declines.

During his hospital stay, famous personalities visited Shaun. This includes radio deejay, Dongfang Billy, who had battled cancer himself. Shaun’s primary school principal, Mrs Pryke, also knew someone at the MTV Asia concert. She managed to arrange for their whole family to catch Shaun’s favourite boy band, Blue. These activities prepared for him, made Shaun very happy.

One day, out of the blue, Shaun told his father that he would like to be baptised. He wanted to become a Christian. As Jimmy was searching for a miracle to heal Shaun, he thought that maybe this would be it. Jimmy said yes and arranged for both his children to be baptised. However, at that moment, Jimmy was still blind about Jesus. He was not sure what baptism meant.

After their baptism, Shaun and Demi were informed of the church’s upcoming activities. This included a church camp on 10 June that year at Sunway Lagoon in Kuala Lumpur. Shaun asked if he could go to the church camp and Jimmy said yes. However, in Jimmy’s mind, he was still hoping for a miracle. He longed for Shaun to be free from cancer.

During this period, Shaun’s medical bills were piling up. Despite the insurance bought by Lindy, which covered 85 percent of the bills, there was $100,000 of extra fees to pay for. The extra fees came from alternative treatments that Jimmy had sought in a bid to save Shaun’s life. To pay his mounting debts, Jimmy borrowed money from everyone like a madman. Thanksfully, most of the people lent money out of sympathy, although he had not settled his old debts with them. For that, Jimmy is eternally grateful to them.

So, what kind of alternative treatments did Jimmy try, in hopes of saving his son?

Jimmy tried numerous ways to try to get rid of Shaun’s cancer. Apparently, one way to do so is to eat apricot kernels. One day, Jimmy went to the supermarket to buy all the apricots. He even asked the vendor if they had any more. She told him to go to a wholesale centre at Pasir Panjang instead. There, Jimmy told the seller that he wanted all her apricots for his son who was battling cancer. Upon hearing his story, the kind-hearted seller gave him a whole carton for free!

At home, Jimmy removed all the apricot seeds and cracked them open to get to the kernel inside. Then, he boiled all the kernel he could dig out and made it into a porridge-like consistency. But upon feeding it to Shaun, he immediately threw up after the first mouthful. That was the end of Jimmy’s apricot kernel remedy. All that effort for nothing!

Next, Jimmy was also sold on lingzhi, which has been touted as a miracle herb. So, he made Shaun swallow 150 pills a day. Needless to say, this supposedly miracle herb did not work as well.

Watching his son suffer pained Jimmy, he felt utterly helpless. However, Jimmy not give up. He tried everything he could in his bid to save his son. To Jimmy, Shaun was worth all the efforts, his son meant the world to him. In his desperation, Jimmy turned to every man and every religion to seek help. All his common sense and rational thought flew out the window, and he started to believe and follow every religion which promised they could ’save’ Shaun.

On one occasion, Jimmy went to a famous temple at Waterloo Street to pray and ask for help. While praying, Jimmy drew a lot that said, a man who was a ’golden rooster’ in his Chinese horoscope would be able to save Shaun. Elated, Jimmy asked everyone he met what their zodiac sign was, including all the doctors at the hospital. But Jimmy could not find any ’rooster’.

Next, a relative told Jimmy about a famous ‘shifu’ (Master) and tried to get an appointment for him. To do so, Jimmy had to send him his own birth dates to see if they were destined to meet. Luckily, they did, and Jimmy was able to see him. His friend, Jac, drove Shaun and Jimmy to see this shifu at his home. The shifu told them that, apparently, a little ghost was following Shaun and was waiting for him on ‘the other side’. The shifu also asked if Shaun had a black mole on his back. He said that if he had it, then, he could save Shaun. Amazingly, Shaun had a tiny mole, just like the shifu said! Jimmy was overjoyed and pleaded with the shifu to save Shaun. He believed this was the ‘rooster’ he had been waiting for.

The shifu explained that he needed to go to the countryside near Bangkok to engage 40 virgin monks to chant for Shaun. The shifu said that it would cost Jimmy $4,000 for his travel expenses and services. On top of that, for this to work more effectively, Jimmy should buy a talisman from him, costing from $1,000 to $4,000 each.

As Jimmy was broke, he went to office the next day and took a personal loan of $15,000 from his company. That evening, Jimmy went back to the shifu and paid him $4,000 for his ‘treatment’. A few weeks later, the shifu instructed Jimmy to bathe Shaun in ’holy water’ collected from his home. But he added that Shaun should still follow all the procedures advised by his doctor.

Jimmy did everything the shifu had instructed him, but nothing happened— there was no miracle cure. When Shaun’s condition became worse, Jimmy called the shifu many times but to no avail. When the Shifu finally called Jimmy back much later, he simply told Jimmy to follow the doctors’ orders. That was it.

Shaun’s condition worsened and went downhill every day. The doctor asked if Jimmy wanted to try chemotherapy as a last resort. Chemotherapy would make Shaun lose his hair. This would affect Shaun badly as he still wanted to look good. It would also give him nausea and Shaun would not be able to enjoy his favourite food like fish ball and black pepper crabs. Jimmy and Lindy were torn between letting Shaun enjoy a short life, or a longer one but with more suffering. However, knowing all the side effects, going for chemotherapy did not make sense to them; the result would just be an extension of a month or two. Either way, they would still lose him.

Shaun’s condition was deteriorating fast. Jimmy wanted to stop working to spend more time with him. But financially, it just was not possible as the bills had to be paid. This financial reality was made clearer when a debt collector, appointed by the hospital, called their home. Shaun was the one who picked up the phone and he told them that Jimmy was out. However, the person on the line said something to the effect of “Ask your father to pay up, or else!”

Shaun was very visibly shaken by the fierce tone and threat. His parents had to reassure him that everything was under control. Jimmy was furious with the way the debt collection was done. He had simply been too preoccupied with Shaun and work, hence had forgotten to pay the bills. The hospital later apologised, but this incident caused a big fight between Jimmy and Lindy. As tempers were already frayed, she accused him of being irresponsible. They were already very frustrated and sad, and this only made the situation worse.

Despite all their efforts, the doctors continued to give bad news every day. Shaun was deteriorating fast! He would be in pain for hours on end and eventually had only two pain-free hours a day. It was very heart-breaking to watch him. The only times he seemed to cheer up was when the youth group from the church came down to worship with him.

While still searching for ‘miracle’, Jimmy also became baptised – not to be a Christian, but by two Chinese women he met at the hospital. They were very nice and shared their Japanese religion with Jimmy. They told him that it would help his son.

Jimmy went down to visit their temple at Paya Lebar. He was quickly scheduled to be baptised a few days later. On the day of Jimmy’s baptism, Shaun suddenly asked if Jimmy was going to be free that night. Shaun would like them to visit Aunty Ann Thomas’s home, a church member, at 7 pm for a gathering with his friends. But, Jimmy told Shaun he had a very important ’appointment’ – the baptism – that night. Shaun pleaded, “Daddy, can you come once you’re done, pleeeaaase. Promise me?”

To show his seriousness, Shaun personally asked the doctors to let him go out that evening. By then, he was both on morphine and steroids, and had to be closely monitored. His doctors relented, and he was allowed to be out for four hours that night.

So, what was it that Shaun was so intent to do?

As planned, Jimmy went for his baptism. At 8 pm, Shaun called him to check if Jimmy was on the way. When Jimmy drove into the area, the whole place was dark. He walked into the house when suddenly, the lights came on and Shaun, Demi, Lindy and everyone from the church group appeared! Demi held a cake, and everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him! “It’s a surprise birthday for you, Daddy!” Shaun said.

Everyone from church was there and they sang to Jimmy as well. Can you see how special and precious that moment was? Despite all his pain, he went out of his way to plan this surprise party for me. Thinking about this incident still makes me cry as I write this, almost a decade later.

Ever since being hospitalised, Shaun became very involved with the church. Despite his discomfort, Shaun would enjoy every pain-free minute, SMS-ing his friends, singing, worshipping, laughing and playing with them. He also looked forward to the church camp in June and everyone, including Jimmy, wanted to make it happen. They made the preparations and had discussions with his doctors. The church even planned to have an ambulance on standby, just for Shaun. But, time was almost running out.

Everyone let’s praise the Lord! Although Shaun was suffering so much, God was still taking care of him. He gave Shaun the comfort of his church group! But, would Shaun’s dream of attending his church camp come true? Will Shaun manage to overcome his disease? Come and listen to their story next Thursday. Stay tuned and good bye!