S'pore brain cancer survivor faces discrimination from employer: "They retrenched me within a month and gave me a few hours to pack up"

A 37-year-old father of three was diagnosed with brain cancer and managed to beat the illness, but faced stigma from employers when he returned to the working world. 

The discrimination he claims, prompted him to start on a new career. 

The man, who turns 37 years old this year was diagnosed with brain cancer four years back, with doctors predicting that he would have just three years left to live, reports Lianhe Wanbao. 

After two years of recuperation and therapy, he miraculously recovered, much to the surprise of the doctors, and decided to resume working.

However, he found that most of his technical skills had been rendered obsolete with time, and spent almost half a year searching for a new job -- only to be retrenched within a month of employment.

The ex-cancer patient told reporters:

“Despite the doctors issuing me a letter clarifying that I have already recovered from the illness, many employers were still sceptical about my health conditions and refused to hire me.”

After half a year of searching, he finally landed a job, but was retrenched, as the employer reportedly found him too slow.

Said the disheartened man:

“I spent so much of my life studying and finally attained a polytechnic diploma, but just because of my illness, everything was for naught.”

His 35-year-old wife also chipped in on the incident:

“He worked so hard on that job, coming home every day to review the data.

“Yet the company just terminated him without prior notice.

“They only allowed him a few hours to pack up his belongings.

“My husband was devastated.”

Fortunately, he did not give up, and switched to a new career under advice from a friend.

He subsequently found employment as a librarian, having passed the three months of his trial in Oct 2016.

He is now in charge of registering new library members and managing the return as well as loaning of books. 

He has hopes that once his conditions further improves, he would be able to resume a lustrous career, and make it up to his wife and daughter, whom he feels, he owes much to.