Diagnosed with nose cancer a day before his 19th birthday, this youth is now on a mission to pursue ‘everything’ he ever wanted

SINGAPORE — Midway through a routine march during his Basic Military Training last year, Mr Ignatius Lim suddenly experienced uncomfortable ringing and vibrations in one ear. 

He shrugged it off at first but those sensations became increasingly harder to ignore as the weeks rolled on — until one day, he went almost completely deaf in his right ear.

“There was a point where I requested my mates to communicate with me exclusively to my left ear,” he said.

“It caused a lot of disruptions in my daily life.”

Eventually, around a month after his symptoms first surfaced, he went to see a specialist doctor who recommended a biopsy just to be safe.

Describing himself as quite a "paranoid individual", Mr Lim said that he also went online to look up his symptoms, as he would normally do.

"I’m the type of person that will search up my symptoms, and if the internet says I have cancer, I will think I have it.”

While his fears are unfounded most of the time, the results of his biopsy that came back two weeks later did not bring good news.

Mr Lim, just a day short of his 19th birthday, was diagnosed with stage 3 nasopharyngeal cancer, more commonly known as nose cancer.

While he was shocked at the diagnosis given that he does not smoke or drink and his family does not have a history of cancer, his doctor was even more surprised.

“I even remember the doctor saying, ‘I’m not sure if I took the sample of a 50-year-old man or yours’,” Mr Lim recounted during an interview with TODAY almost a year since he was first diagnosed.

FIRST PATIENT TO UNDERGO BOTH CHEMOTHERAPY AND PROTON THERAPY FOR NOSE CANCER

Associate Professor Melvin Chua, who treated Mr Lim, said that nasopharyngeal cancer is one of the top 10 variations of cancer causing death in Singapore.

It is also typically more prevalent in adults who are 30 to 50 years of age.

Assoc Prof Chua is the head consultant of the department of head and neck and thoracic cancers at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS).

He added that the risk of being diagnosed with nose cancer is “substantially higher” if one is of Southern Han Chinese descent — namely those from the Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese and Hainanese dialect groups — of which Mr Lim is.

Under the recommendation of his doctor, Mr Lim decided to undergo chemotherapy and proton therapy — an advanced form of targeted radiation therapy that spares patients' healthy tissues from exposure to unnecessary low-dose radiation.

Proton therapy has been found to be particularly effective for patients diagnosed with brain, paediatric, and head and neck cancers. Mr Lim was the first patient to undergo such a treatment alongside chemotherapy for nose cancer in Singapore. 

Proton therapy, which significantly reduces the risk of any long-term complications, costs more than conventional radiation therapy.

Mr Lim underwent 30 sessions of proton therapy alongside three rounds of chemotherapy from September to October last year. 

Dealing with the physical effects was no walk in the park. 

“The first three days after each (chemotherapy) session, I wouldn’t have any energy to move around,” he said, adding that even walking to the toilet at home was a challenge.

Mr Lim would also experience severe throat pain and peeling of the skin around his neck from proton therapy.

Despite the physical pain and dealing with the anxiety from wondering if the treatment would work, the young man said: "I told myself… the fact that I’m (still) here means that I’m able to go through everything, no matter (how bad) I feel."

He is in remission but goes back to NCCS every three months to monitor his condition.

TIME TO ‘PURSUE EVERYTHING’

Despite his youth, Assoc Prof Chua described Mr Lim as a mature, strong-willed and independent man who took the tough cancer treatments in his stride even though he was “emotionally on a knife’s edge”.

During his interview with TODAY, Mr Lim emphasised several times that he has a renewed optimism and outlook on life.

“I believe that cancer forced me to seriously acknowledge that this is my first and only life, so I need to make it count.” 

Following his discharge from National Service, Mr Lim did a recruiting internship specialising in the banking and finance sector, and recently embarked on another internship in the accounting and finance arm of a small and medium enterprise.

He will enrol in Nanyang Technological University’s double degree programme in accountancy and business next year. 

“I believe now is the time for me to pursue everything that I ever wanted to do,” he said.

“I would abhor living with any regrets, especially with this close encounter with cancer.”

Mr Lim, who turns 20 next month, advised other young people to “listen” to their bodies and consult a doctor if they feel something is amiss. 

For those diagnosed with a similar condition, he said: “Everyone's cancer journey is different, but (it will be) a testament to your mettle and grit.”

“Never let anybody else tell you otherwise.”