Diem the survivor

Former model Diem Kyly refuses to let a fatal cancer diagnosis get her down. Instead, she’s helping those in the same boat.

Former model Diem Kyly paid her visit to children suffered from cancer last Tet holiday

It’s impossible to tell Diem Kyly is sick at all until she tells you so.

In her youthful pink t-shirt and tight jeans, the former model, now 38, looks healthy and strong and has even maintained a sexy figure.

The only indication that she’s suffered a lifetime of health ailments – from heart disease, to hepatitis and now jaw cancer – is that she speaks somewhat slowly. But that might just be because she’s cool, clam and relaxed, completely comfortable in her own skin, and confident at every turn. With her hair in a chignon, she looks younger and healthier than ever.

She says she’s talked a bit more slowly ever since she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage last year. It happened because she fainted and hit her head after a bad reaction to heart medication. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The mother-of-two’s struggle began when doctors preparing to operate on her for chronic valvular heart disease discovered her jaw cancer in 2009. And that was after she contracted hepatitis C when a thief ripped out one of her earrings on the street in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh in 2008. Then, in 2010, doctors told her the cancer would take her life within a year and a half.

Having gracefully outlived that prediction, now she takes a full battery of pills and medicine to stay alive. But Kyly says she has something else driving her not only to stay alive, but to live, and that’s the drive to help others in her situation.

She’s begun planning a charity project that will provide free cancer consultancies at renowned Singaporean hospitals like Parkway and Mount Elizabeth, places she credits for helping her survive the fatal disease.

Her days in those hospitals were both grim and full of hope. She shared a room with three other patients who suffered from lung, stomach and breast cancer. Kyly is the only one still alive.

She says that after her successful treatment, the least she could do is help others get the same.

“The right consultancy can help both the patients and their families prepare for the changes,” she says. “They will be encouraged to ask questions and get as much information as possible from me or volunteers, who can provide information about patients’ specific needs. I will tell them my experiences and everything I know.”

Diem says she is now scouting locations for a coffee shop that she says will cater specifically to people battling with cancer by helping them find the right treatment. She plans to officially begin soliciting donations for the project in March and says that Parkway and Mount Elizabeth have already agreed to help in the form of free consultancy and treatment.

“You can devote anything you have, money, time, care or share your experiences,” says Diem. “I hope to gather as many patients as possible, as we can overcome the disease together by organizing meaningful social charity events and activities. Just enjoy live and be devoted until the last breath, don’t give up.”

Dealt a bad hand

When Diem Kyly was an up-and-coming model about to undergo heart surgery, she never imagined she would soon have to face an even worse disease.

“My first thought when receiving the news that I had cancer was that I was going to die and leave my kids alone,” Diem recalls. “The doctors postponed my heart disease treatment and began cancer tests. My sister and I drove home in tears and I could not sleep that night. I had already been dealing with Hepatitis C and could imagine how much darker the future would get.”

She found that Vietnamese hospitals were overcrowded and understaffed so she rustled together enough money for treatment in Singapore.

“A cancer patient really needs a spotless environment to be protected and cured,” she says.

After an initial year of treatment, Diem says she felt healthy and believed that she was on the road to recovery.

But then things changed again when she was told she had only 18 months to live.

“I felt totally drained when the doctor calmly announced that I had metastasis in my lungs. I heard myself scream, it seemed so surreal,” says Diem. “I really felt good, how could it be? I could not stop crying.”

She then returned to Vietnam to say goodbye to her loved ones.

“I could barely tell my son and daughter that in the near future, I would go away. I made up a story that I would become a star when I die and I could follow them. But I broke into tears and could not say a word when my son asked me ‘what about me? You can see me, but I cannot see you.’ I knew I just had to try my best,” Diem says weeping over a glass of water.

The hardest part of jaw cancer is not being able to eat, according to Diem. And now, she cannot eat anything without water.

“I tried to swallow as much food as possible, but my daily meals were flooded with tears.”

But slowly, she miraculously got better and is now feeling great, having out lived even the doctors’ most generous predictions.

However, she’s not getting lazy anytime soon.

“I know my disease is dangerous and it could turn worse anytime,” she says. “I just try to keep my life as healthy as I can and pray all day, every day. But I am not greedy. I just ask for another half-year every six months.”