{"id":82245,"date":"2026-09-04T23:03:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T15:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=82245"},"modified":"2026-09-04T23:03:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T15:03:01","slug":"once-given-just-30-days-to-live-this-cancer-survivor-now-runs-a-ban-mian-stall-in-yishun-lifestyle-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=82245","title":{"rendered":"Once given just 30 days to live, this cancer survivor now runs a ban mian stall in Yishun, Lifestyle News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>After being told he had only 30 days to live, Tan Yong Cheng spent the next two years fighting late-stage nasopharyngeal cancer, also known as nose cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>37 rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy later, the 48-year-old is still standing \u2014 now a hawker running Xiao Wen Ban Mian in Yishun.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, Yong Cheng, who had been working as a technician for the past eight years, noticed that he had started losing weight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His trousers were getting increasingly loose.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"591\" width=\"267\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?height=476&amp;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Freel%2F3062127867467592%2F&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=267&amp;t=0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\">\u00a0<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This prompted him to seek medical help at a clinic, after which he was referred to a hospital for further checks \u2014 where he received the life-changing diagnosis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And the doctor told me there&#8217;s bad news, I had only about 30 days to live,&#8221; the hawker told Shin Min Daily News.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite the grim prognosis, Yong Cheng pushed on, thinking about his father, who was in his 90s at the time.<\/p>\n<p>His mother and sister had passed away in 2018 and 2017 respectively.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You have not tried fighting yet so you may not necessarily lose, you still have your father around, you must be strong and live on,&#8221; he would encourage himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yong Cheng also kept his condition from his family at the time, he told the Chinese daily.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he took the MRT to the hospital for treatment alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The doctor asked me why nobody came with me, and I told him I didn&#8217;t want anyone to worry,&#8221; he said in an interview with BestFoody.<\/p>\n<p>Yong Cheng went through 37 intensive sessions of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for this treatment.<\/p>\n<p>By the 20th day of treatment, he was in so much pain that he could not eat or walk, and needed to be intubated, he told Shin Min Daily News.<\/p>\n<p>His weight also dropped significantly \u2014 from around 60kg to 30kg.<\/p>\n<p>But throughout the difficult period, Yong Cheng did have the support of someone \u2014 his wife Ah Wen, who married him during his battle with cancer.<\/p>\n<p>The pair wed on Aug 3, 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Before getting married, they had been maintaining a long-distance relationship for two years, having met at a roadside stall in Vietnam in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After learning of his diagnosis, the Vietnamese national, encouraged by her mother, flew to Singapore to take care of Yong Cheng and his elderly father.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yong Cheng recalled telling Ah Wen that she could still change her mind if she regretted her decision, but she remained firm and continued to stay by his side throughout his treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At the time, doctors had assessed his chances of recovery at between 40 and 60 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am very happy to see him recover,&#8221; Ah Wen told Shin Min Daily News.<\/p>\n<p>After two years of treatment and recuperation, the cancer cells in Yong Cheng&#8217;s body were cleared.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Till today however, he still has to endure the side effects of the treatments as well as doing stretching exercises and taking medication every day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But how did he end up becoming a hawker?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"562\" width=\"500\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpermalink.php%3Fstory_fbid%3Dpfbid021UUcn6RkUAEMKkhfrJ1YjkQYzFd4DxNv7RfrRDa6nwbdVwpnniFY13MGJ1jRqVfol%26id%3D61575160205281&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\">\u00a0<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Speaking to BestFoody, the former technician said he had tried to return to his former workplace \u2014 a factory \u2014 after he had recovered.<\/p>\n<p>However, the company told him he had fallen out of touch with the job and turned him away.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His attempts to find work elsewhere also proved difficult, with companies hesitant to hire him due to his health history, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He eventually took on a bank loan to open a noodle stall in Yishun &#8220;to survive&#8221;, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This society can be very cruel. If people know I had a serious illness before, it becomes very difficult to find a job.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Address: 504 Yishun Street 51, #01-07, Singapore 760504<\/em><br \/><em>Opening hours: Thurs to Sun, 9am to 9pm; Mon-Wed, 9am to 8.30pm; closed on Tues<\/em><\/p>\n<p>[[nid:725097]]<\/p>\n<p>carol.ong@asiaone.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiaone.com\/lifestyle\/cancer-survivor-yishun-hawker-xiao-wen-ban-mian\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After being told he had only 30 days to live, Tan Yong Cheng spent the next two years fighting late-stage nasopharyngeal cancer, also known as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82245","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=82245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}