58-year-old educator Wong Ching Yee has faced a decade-long battle with multiple myeloma, a relapsing blood cancer. Diagnosed in 2017, she endured chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, and multiple remissions and relapses.
Just months after her own treatment, her husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. He died within 10 months, leaving her a single mother to three sons.
Amid this cascade of loss, Wong turned to art. Starting with handmade cards in 2019, she progressed to sketching, calligraphy, and painting. She found particular meaning in kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold.
Wong underwent a stem cell transplant in December 2018. (Photo: Wong Ching Yee)
"To me, this symbolises picking up pieces - whether they be sad news or the brokenness in myself - and putting them together into a new story," she said.
Now in her second remission since April 2025, Wong is on monthly maintenance chemotherapy. She has taken long-term leave from her job and focuses on family, relationships, and her art.
"Mortality is very real. It’s staring at me in the face. However, I give thanks that I'm still able to pick myself up and take on life," she reflected.
Wong’s artwork of a Peranakan building done in colour pencils. (Photo: Wong Ching Yee)
According to Professor Chng Wee Joo at the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore, about 80% of multiple myeloma patients relapse after treatment. Each remission tends to be shorter. Yet many patients maintain a good quality of life for more than a decade.