\n<\/p>\n
When she was at school, meanwhile, people around her thought she was faking her pain or trying to \u201cchao keng\u201d (avoid responsibilities), even though she enjoyed studying.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause there was no explanation as to why I was going through this, people would be like, \u2018Nothing is real,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When she commutes, some children will stare at her \u2014 a young person using a cane \u2014 while some older folks \u201croll their eyes\u201d. She used to ask for a seat on the train but eventually stopped because of the \u201cdirty looks\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are less willing to give up the priority seat when you don\u2019t look the part,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her illnesses also strained her relationship with her parents. Once a self-described \u201cmodel child\u201d who did well in school and rarely caused trouble, she started falling sick by Secondary 3.<\/p>\n
Her parents \u201cgot so irritated\u201d at how often she was unwell that she had to write her own sick notes, she said.<\/p>\n
They supported her in practical ways, for example in her medical expenses and household chores. She felt emotionally alone, however, as they struggled to accept the extent of her disabilities, including her need for a wheelchair.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
When she was at school, meanwhile, people around her thought she was faking her pain or trying to \u201cchao keng\u201d (avoid responsibilities), even though she…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--_ABUQ1Tb--\/c_crop,h_1080,w_1920,x_0,y_0\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/07\/23\/stills.00_20_15_15.still052.jpg?itok=iyYIMsvl","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[331,3745,402,276,1397,4182,7439],"class_list":["post-70933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-everyday","tag-fighting","tag-life","tag-pain","tag-part","tag-shes","tag-survive","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/70934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}