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Battle with brain tumour no barrier to PSLE achiever

SINGAPORE — She is smaller in build than most of her 12-year-old classmates, suffers from memory lapses and takes longer than most people to process her thoughts.

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SINGAPORE — She is smaller in build than most of her 12-year-old classmates, suffers from memory lapses and takes longer than most people to process her thoughts.

But that has not stopped Celeste Chang — who had to have part of her brain removed due to medulloblastoma, a type of brain tumour, when she was in Primary 1 — from maintaining a positive attitude towards life and carrying out her fair share of responsibilities.

Dubbed the “iron lady” by her father, the Nanyang Primary School pupil was one of the 39,286 Primary 6 students who received their Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results today (Nov 25).

To her parents’ delight, Celeste received an A for English and Chinese, and a C for Math and Science — results that are better than they had expected and will enable her to join the Express course.

For a young girl who is on lifelong medication following her surgery, her PSLE journey is certainly no walk in the park. After her surgery in September 2010, Celeste had to go through 15 months of treatment, which included radiation therapy and chemotherapy. She could only return to school in March 2012 as a Primary 3 student.

According to her parents, Celeste had difficulties integrating back into school. Her cognitive limitations meant she often lagged behind during lessons, taking about five times longer than most to complete simple tasks.

As she also suffers from high-frequency hearing loss, Celeste would have to step out of the class whenever it gets too noisy, to clear her mind.

Despite the odds, Celeste, who has to be injected with growth hormones every night, persevered with the support of others, such as her family and school teachers.

For example, her teachers would photocopy notes for her when Celeste was unable to keep up with taking notes in class.

Celeste’s father, Mr Astro Chang, 46, had quit his job as a director of sales shortly after his eldest child was diagnosed with the brain tumour.

“I know I have to be around ... because it’s not something that will go away in a week or two,” said Mr Chang, who also has a nine-year-old son and a daughter, 6.

While Mr Chang and his wife, Jackie, 44, also received financial and emotional support from the Children’s Cancer Foundation, social workers and family members, they said that they found most of their encouragement from Celeste herself.

Mr Chang said: “The person that made it the easiest for us is really Celeste. She’s like an iron lady. Don’t be fooled by this small little thing ... (She’s) stronger than any of the adults that I’ve come across.”

Celeste, who aspires to be a character designer, said she often finds respite in painting her favourite cartoon character, Mickey Mouse.

She likes Mickey for his ability to maintain an upbeat attitude no matter the circumstances.

When asked if she would like to emulate Mickey’s sunny character, Celeste said: “If I can, but, of course, I can’t. This is life, not a fairy tale.”

Another Primary 6 student who beat the odds to pass this year’s PSLE is 13-year-old Noorhaziqah Hamlie.

The Eunos Primary School student had to repeat a year after she failed her mathematics paper in last year’s PSLE. With her friends all moving on to secondary school, Haziqah, as she is known among her family and friends, was anxious about meeting new classmates at the beginning of this year .

But she did not let her past failure get her down. After she adapted to her new class, Haziqah began to adopt a more optimistic attitude, often approaching teachers for consultation.

Her love of netball also spurred Haziqah, who was the captain of her school’s netball team, to study hard, since she was determined to make it to secondary school so she could continue to play netball.

During the East Zone netball tournament earlier this year, Haziqah’s solid performance on court led her to be talent-scouted by the Singapore Sports School, and she was invited to their netball selection trials.

Her efforts at improving her grades paid off at the PSLE. She had an aggregate score of 149 and also topped her school in Foundation Mathematics. Her results qualify her for the Normal (Technical) course.

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