In Memory of My Beloved Father
By Shu-Ping Pan, Family Member
My father devoted his ninety-four years to teaching us that no hardship, cancer included, justifies surrender. Even when the disease returned in extreme old age, he faced it head-on so that younger patients might see there is always reason to keep fighting.
Our First Meeting with the Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center
In August 2007, at seventy-seven, Father was diagnosed with oral cancer. Terror swallowed the family: could an elderly man survive such an ordeal? Two hospitals confirmed the finding, and Father chose treatment at KFSYSCC. The moment we entered the softly lit consulting suite, trimmed in warm wood rather than cold hospital white, our fear eased.
There we met the first of Father’s “guardian doctors,” Dr. Shyuang-Der Terng. His clear, confident explanation of surgery steadied Father immediately. On August 31, 2007 Father rolled into the operating room for a five-hour surgery. By evening the anaesthetic had barely worn off when he insisted on walking laps around the nursing station, because Dr. Terng had told him early movement speeds recovery. Fears that facial surgery would leave disfiguring scars proved unfounded; the incision healed almost invisibly, and Father beamed with relief.
Trust in the team soon led us to transfer his unrelated chest condition to KFSYSCC as well, where Dr. Chung-Jen Huang became his second lifesaver. Under their combined care Father passed fourteen cancer-free years.
The Second Blow
On February 8, 2021, two days before Lunar New Year, we attended what we expected to be another routine check-up. Instead, a new oral-cancer lesion appeared. Dr. Terng’s face was grave, yet he urged Father not to give up. Could the heavens grant one more cure to a man now battling lung disease, hypertension, and advanced age? Dr. Terng looked him in the eye: “Uncle, you beat cancer once with courage. I’ll treat you as my own father; let’s fight again.” Father smiled back: “I believe you. This is my choice. Let’s try once more.”
Two Surgeries in Six Weeks
February 26, 2021 – Removal of a malignant tumour in the right buccal mucosa. Pathology: stage IV, bone invasion; four hours in surgery, smooth recovery.
April 16, 2021 – A month later residual disease erupted from the right lower gum. Risky right-mandible resection lasted over ten hours. Plastic surgeon Dr. Shou-Feng Lin rebuilt the jaw flawlessly. Anaesthesia was class III—fifty times riskier than Father’s first operation fourteen years earlier—yet his iron will carried him through.
That night, groggy but determined, Father demanded pen and paper to write thank-you notes. When weakness made his hand falter he slammed the table in frustration; we guided his fingers line by line until dawn.
The Ordeal of Radiotherapy
Within weeks Father began seventeen fractions of radiation, a compromise worked out by Dr. Terng and radiation oncologist Dr. Yih-Lin Chung to spare him exhausting daily travel. By the third session he woke us at midnight, mouth flooded with fresh blood. For weeks water felt like swallowing glass splinters, yet he pressed on: “So many people are working for me; how could I not fight to live?”
Victory at Ninety-Four
Father cleared treatment: the second time becoming a cancer survivor. Exhausted but proud, he told us he wished to spend his final days where his healing had begun: KFSYSCC. When COVID restrictions forced him into an isolation ward, Dr. Huang still climbed the stairs to the 5-North ward daily, tweaking ventilator settings to ease Father’s breathing. On his last evening nurse specialist Tsai I-Wen phoned in Dr. Terng’s farewell; I whispered it into Father’s ear, grateful that both physicians who had carried him for sixteen years were present in spirit.
Turning Gratitude into Action
Father often said, “If you see suffering and can help, you must.” To honour that teaching we donated to KFSYSCC in his name, and I kept a promise by joining the volunteer corps. May his story, beating cancer at ninety-four, lend strength to every patient now in battle.
A Hospital with a Soul
KFSYSCC was founded more than thirty-five years ago for one reason: to change the lives of cancer patients. Founder Professor Andrew T. Huang called it “a hospital with a soul, with principles, with thought.” As KFSYSCC enters its thirty-fifth year, may it continue to light the night for families like ours, easing pain, guarding life, and guiding each traveller from darkness into dawn.
We met KFSYSCC in a place of truth, goodness, and beauty, and there we found hope.