Long distance courtship and Marriage

 

I had by this time met my future wife, Susie at a dinner function in the London flat of Mary and Dr. Seah Pong Pin, and she was home to visit her mum, her brothers and sister and grandmother.

 

She was a Catholic, Cantonese and the family had strong Chinese traditional values. She worked in the First Chicago Bank at Connaught Center in Hong Kong. On my visit to Hong Kong to take a Chinese group of doctors to China, I met up with Susie and our courtship continued until I overstayed my time, and had to cross the Hong Kong harbour at night in a ‘walla walla' to the Ambassador Hotel, where I stayed. Susie returned to London, and on the 12 April 1975 we were married at the Hampstead registry.

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Our reception was held at the Kensington Palace Hotel and the dinner at the Village Restaurant in Shaftesbury Road. The Ambassador attended the function as well as many friends and relatives. Our honeymoon in Italy, where we went by Cook’s Tour, started from Milan on a coach tour, then onwards to Florence, Rome, Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri. Returning home, we packed up my apartment at Peter’s Court, and we went back through the United States, stopping in New York, New Orleans, Washington, Denver, San Francisco, Honolulu and Hong Kong. We stayed at the Hilton Hotels, but lodged with my academic contacts in Washington, D.C, Chai (Susie's second brother) in San Francisco, and her aunt in Hong Kong.

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~ Settling down in Singapore ~

 

I had earlier in 1974, been offered a job as Lecturer in Medicine at the University Department of Medicine I, Singapore General Hospital. This gave me a chance to continue research, and I was helped greatly by the advices given by my aunt, Dr. Oon Chiew Seng. At the interview with the Vice Chancellor then Dr. Toh Chin Chye, at the Bukit Timah campus, I remember he said to his interview board “ Do we need him? For his salary, we could employ ten Indians” [This was quite humiliating, because I had turned down an offer by Westminster Hospital to be Senior Lecturer in Tumour Biology and Hon. Senior Registrar in the Hospital. However, I had made up my mind, and with Susie’s support, that we would settle down in Singapore and my aim, was to see how I can help 'my people back home'.

 

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~ Bringing up a family ~

 

We stayed at my aunt Chiew Seng’s place in Holland Rd, until we found University quarters at Linden Drive. Here our two sons, Sheng Lung (Joshua) and Sheng Fei (Luke) were born. Sheng Lung on the 16 July 1976, and Sheng Fei on the 16 September 1978. Those were happy days. Though we were poor, as we had to live on my university salary, and Susie could not get the promised senior administrative job, we were still happy. We bought our first second hand Colt Gallant and drove around Linden Drive, and later with a gift from Koo Chay, we changed to a new a Honda Civic.

 

We went to Marine Parade frequently, and played football by the beach, flew kites, or swam on the shore. Later, we would eat at the food stalls. On one occasion ,we also stayed overnight at the chalets and had a barbecue with some friends. It was quite a joyful time and we had time to go to Port Dickson in our Ford, and to Tanjong Bungah, Penang to stay at my Uncle Khye Seh's Sri Pantai motel by the beach.

 

We changed many cars over the years, from Ford Cortina, to Peugeot 306, to Saab 900, to Mercedes 200E, and finally as I loved to drive a Jaguar, we got a second hand Jaguar. One day our old Jag caught fire at the Tanglin Club, and after putting out the fire, we decided to sell it. After starting in private practice , we bought a Daimler with a car loan.

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Floods In 1980

 

We moved out of Linden drive and bought our home at Princess of Wales Rd with  a University housing loan to purchase it. Susie has a knack of choosing a home. For many days and nights, we kept dreaming of the semi-detached house we wanted to buy. We chose this place, because it was on a high ground, had street lights outside us, was near to the shops and main road and, had a leasehold of 999 years. In those days, there were frequent floods, and one day the whole of our street flooded to waist level, and dust bins were washed out towards the Bukit Timah canal. However, fortunately for our house being on high ground was not really affected as the flood waters stayed at the front gates.

 

Teaching and Research in the University

 

Soon after I had started, Professor Wong Poi Kong, then Head of the University Department of Medicine I (MUI) guided me on my work in his department. At a meeting with three elder doyen in Medicine, Professor Seah Cheng Siang (Head of the Ministry of Health’s Department of Medicine, at Singapore General Hospital), Professor Khoo Oon Teik (Head, University Department of Medicine, and Professor Shanmugaratnam (Head , Department of University Department of Pathology), I was formally invited to be charge of the Research on Liver Cancer, as it was the top cancer in Singapore then with a high mortality rate.

 

Research facilities & funding

 

Prof Wong, offered me a space in the Ransome Research Laboratory in the attic of the Old Norris Block. With a Lee Foundation Liver Cancer Grant of S$10,000 donated by Mr. Lee Seng Gee, through the help of my aunt ,Dr. Oon Chiew Seng, I was able to employ a Research Scientist Dr. Yo Sui Lan (a PhD graduate of McGill University) and a technician Mdm Lim Gek Keow.

 

My first task was to assemble together interested clinicians and specialists within the hospital. Amongst the early supporters were surgeons, like Prof Abu Rauff and Ho Soon Teik, Radiologist Prof Lenny Tan, Pathologist Dr. Gilbert Chiang, Biochemists Chio Lee Foo and Tan Aik Khoon, microbiologist Jimmy Sng, Professor Chan So Ha (WHO Lab for Immunology), Dr Goh Kee Tai (MOH Epidemiology Department), Felix Sundram (Nuclear Medicine) and members of our department staff.

 

We called this group the “Hepatoma Research Group”  and we would meet monthly in our attic lab meeting room. We reviewed laboratory and clinical data, prognosis, virology of Liver cases, treatment outcomes, diagnostic measures and carried out early clinical trials for antiviral anti-HBV treatment using adoptive immunotherapy (a method for inducing remission in acute leukemia patients), conducted experiments on nude mice by transplanting liver cancer tissues into them, chemotherapy with cytotoxic drugs and the use of anti-androgenic drugs.

 

In 1981, I formed the Singapore Society of Oncology (SSO) (see : Founding of Singapore Society of Oncology, the Singapore Society of Immunology and Rheumatology (SSIR) and the Asia Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL). I was the founding President of the SSO and SSIR, and the Secretary General of APASL.