FAKTA KEHIDUPAN

Excerpt from The Star 4th March 2009

Wednesday March 4, 2009

Single mum needs your help

IPOH: A single mother is at her wits’ end trying to figure how to raise funds to treat her young son who was hit by a car in Sitiawan on Feb 21.

Ling Pik Syu, 29, said she lost her job as a kitchen helper in Singapore last month after returning to her hometown for a short break to care for her son, who was involved in an accident in Pekan Gurney in Sitiawan.

Mum’s love: Ling at the bedside of Yang Jeng at the Fatimah Hospital in Ipoh yesterday. With her (from left) are Perak MCA Public Complaints and Services Bureau deputy chief Kok Pak Foo, Alex Chan and Perak MCA Youth Public Complaints and Services Bureau chief Tony Khoo.

“I have to stay back to look after him. My former employer found a replacement and I don’t have any source of income now,” she said at the Fatimah Hospital where her son, Sioh Yang Jeng, 11, is recuperating from an operation to remove a blood clot from his brain.

Ling became the family’s sole breadwinner after her husband died in 2003. The mother of three said her son has been in hospital since the operation on Feb 22 and the bill had accumulated to RM80,000.

“I have borrowed RM50,000 from friends for the medical fees,” she said, adding that her son also suffered a broken leg in the accident.

She said the boy would need another operation next month to replace a piece of his skull that was removed.

Perak MCA Public Services and Complaints Bureau chief Alex Chan, who visited Ling and her son at the hospital yesterday, said they needed to raise about RM100,000 to help pay off the mounting hospital expenses.

Donors can contact the bureau at 05-253-6981. Donations can also be made to the “Perak MCA Public Services and Complaints Bureau” with Sioh’s name written on the back of the cheque and sent to the MCA headquarters at 90-92 Tingkat Satu, Jalan Sultan Idris Shah, 30000 Ipoh.