There once lived a naughty boy mistaken for being the terrorizing gangster in school. He was a familiar elder for his stick thin body and tall frame. But at age 15, he turned over a new leaf and became a prefect who was well-liked by teachers.

I never knew him personally. I had expected myself to be unnoticed for being the shy and timid little nobody.

Last year, the ex-prefect met a tragic road accident. The motorbike he was riding crashed into a moving lorry, that partially damaged his lungs and almost took his life. He survived, but lost memory of people not close to him.

Certain friends he once knew received nothing more, but a puzzled look when they walked up to him in public.

But when someone mentioned my name and plight, he recalls of me as the girl from school and was very concerned.

I was speechless.

Firstly, I am shocked by the extend of damages caused by the accident, and secondly, it involved a distant person I never got to know, but somehow remembers me after losing part of his memory.

Such stories appear on movies all the time, but when it involves someone familiar, it’s so surreal and painful, it’s paralyzing.

He got someone to buy two t-shirts from me on his behalf, because despite coping with the sudden changes, he continues pursuing an engineering degree at another state.

I hope to meet up with him soon. I have missed a chance to know a distant acquaintance who could have been a friend, I won’t miss it again.

But the good thing is, according to a friend, he doesn’t remember those days when he was naughty. What a fresh start, to only remember himself to have always been a good boy.

It’s amazing the things God allows to happen.

Written by NST journalist, Jessica Lim. Reproduced here for those who missed the opportunity to read a touching story in print

An incurable disease causes her legs to collapse if she stands for over 10 minutes but this year’s youth award candidate tells JESSICA LIM her heart will take her where her limbs will not.

HER fingers are bent into an perpetual claw — just about the only visible sign that she is struck with a disease that is slowly withering her muscles.

Sia Ling Ling is the last in her family of nine, with six of them hit by the same disease.

Despite that, she has overcome the obstacles in her life and today is the first nominee for the Most Outstanding Youth of the Year award.

“Even if it hurts, I won’t use a wheelchair, not while I can still walk,” says the 26-year old administrator for Beautiful Gate, a home for the disabled in Petaling Jaya.

She was nominated by last year’s winner of the AYA Dream Malaysia Award, Yvonne Foong, 20, who was intrigued by the girl in her college who walked in and out in her strange, swinging gait.

“She left home at 14 and made a living for herself despite her disability. What a story,” said Foong, who herself is facing a disease which makes tumours grow in her body.

Sia can manage the distance of three bus-lengths unsupported. Anything more and she has to lean on walls or chairs.

She can even stand for 10 minutes on her own — but that’s the limit.

At Beautiful Gate, where 40 disabled people stay and hundreds more come to learn skills, people stumble over each other to tell their own Ling Ling love story.

Though something of a mini-celebrity in her circles, the humble roots of her childhood grow deep.

Sia came from a little town in Malacca called Sungai Rambai. As a child, she watched her father, a tailor, struggling with muscular dystrophy. Like watching a horror movie in slow-motion, five of her seven siblings followed the same crippling path.

“I prayed hard that I wouldn’t get it, but when I was eight I got it too.”

Within two years, she had to sit on the grass turf while her friends played lompat getah and “catching”.

Those were tough years.

“Kids would steal my things and throw them at me. One girl told the others that I was like this because we ate turtles. She said that because of that, everyone should keep away.”

Did she cry? “Of course-lah. What do you think? Every night.”

At 14, the pint-sized girl decided that Sungai Rambai was too small for her dreams.

With a little bag of belongings and her heart in her throat, she took a bus to Kuala Lumpur.

After getting her bearings, Sia politely turned down her sister’s financial support and went it alone by selling handmade silver wire keychains at the night market three nights a week.

She took up a full-time position in the centre six years ago, where she continues to infect others with her hearty laughter, thoughtfulness and zest.

Her “pet brother”, Lee Yew Hoe, has a T-shirt given by her emblazoned with his favourite wrestler, The Rock, on display in his room.

“I’ve never worn it because I don’t want to dirty it.

“I was so lonely. Then she met me and started bugging me to join their activities and everything. I used to wonder: ‘Why is she bothering with me? What’s wrong with her?’” said Lee, who has used crutches since young.

Last year, Sia married the man of her dreams, Ng Chung Chiat, after nearly 10 years of courtship.

As she walked down the aisle — without support and without a wheelchair — the atmosphere was thick with emotion.

When the words rang out “For better or worse, for richer or poorer…” her ringbearer and close friend, Ivy Pua, felt the tears welling up.

“She didn’t have it easy, but look at her now. I’m proud to call her my ‘big sister’.”

Dilated pupils,
How come we always feel we’ve seen too much
when all we’ve seen was just a little?
When we still got a roof on top of our heads
And when it’s tough we even got a place to hop into bed
Don’t you see? The people on the streets
You’re disabled when you feel you’re too able for the weak
When it comes to love
There only seems to be enough for yourself
and no one but yourself
And that’s just the way now and then
Cos this is the world we live in
That’s no excuse to watch it pass you by
You can do so much if you stop asking why
Charity begins at home it’s not too far
You can still help regardless of who you are
One voice, one stand, one vision for all men
Can we do it? Yes we can.
Look all around the world today

Nine eleven, double seven, it’s all the same,
We can talk about it but we never saw the pain,
Chain reaction makes another generation weep,
I wonder if in time it will be our turns to bleed,
Bullets in your direction with no one to defend you,
I can’t imagine, I won’t even try to pretend to,
We criticise when it’s just our thoughts
We don’t have to worry about our chest being shot
At times, even I forget how blessed I am
We all do and that’s a fact
When we accept and reject what we all should do
Disaster becomes a thing to look forward to

Lyrics composed and belong to EmceeDavid.

Thanks to The Sun newspaper, I had the privilege of interviewing EmceeDavid, who is helping to spread awareness about my cause. Through e-mail interactions and after speaking to some people who knows him personally, I am impressed by his character. He’s only my age, but his mind is broad although he has not suffered an illness as bad as mine.

The above lyrics were inspired by his visit to London after the 7/7 bombings that killed and injured many. He saw, for himself, the pain in the victims. It shook and gripped him. But how many people who witnessed similiar situations would respond outwardly? Many would instead become apathetic.

The song applies to other forms of suffering and social problems that have been long ignored by people who think they know it all. Most of us are self-absorbed creatures who keep asking why, but never do much to help.

It hurts me to see Malaysia filled with people who refuse to help just because there is simply too many people in need. I am not talking about showing sympathy to me. I am talking about the homeless children and hungry oldfolks out there.

Malaysians will never have enough for themselves no matter how much they earn. I wish I never have to undergo surgery, so that I can truly help others.

When I meet people who believes in selfless dreams like EmceeDavid, Farish Noor, founders of Eden, and full-time humanitarian volunteers, I can’t help but notice the big gap between them and the majority of Malaysians including myself.

Because in Malaysia, most people aren’t just apathetic, they don’t even want to talk about the poor facts of others. Why are you so embarrassed?

Like Farish Noor said, (not his exact words) change and improve can only happen when people admit their shortcomings and differences.

Cynical-Idealist says…

This will be the final post for the entire blogathon. John, Yvonne, Pelf and Jess, it was great to be on the same team as you guys.

I’ll wrap up our effort by saying this: I have a dream.

I have a dream where the disabled aren’t shunned by society because they can’t function like the rest of us.

I have a dream where every single building will have walkways, toilets, bathrooms, ramps and railings to cater to the disabled.

I have a dream where the deaf can walk into a lecture hall and still get what’s going on because there will be people relaying things to them via sign language.

I have a dream where Malaysia makes equality of access a right of every citizen. I have a dream where it doesn’t matter what you’re lacking, because you’re recognised as a welcome part of society.

I have a dream where people will limp down the street or cruise down the street in wheelchairs, and be safe because they have their own pathways. I have a dream where we’ll all say hi to them because it’s the most natural thing in the world to us.

And until that dream can become a reality, we have to keep raising awareness on the many many issues that disabled people face.

We cannot hide from that fact that some of us are different, but we also have to recognise that all of us are still equal. No matter what a person’s condition is, he or she deserves to live a life as full as any of us.

Depression. Deafness. Illness. Diseases. There are so many conditions out there that have to be brought out into the limelight.

Until those are sitting in the sun, we cannot deal with them effectively. So as I close the Blogathon for our team, I would like to urge everyone to go out and be more compassionate, more loving, more caring, and more aware.

Together, we can make a difference in so many ways.

Thank you for being with us during these 24 hours. Thank you for sponsoring Eden.

Thank you.

Cynical-Idealist says…

I’m back! We’re into the final hour of the Blogathon, and there isn’t much time left to pledge. The last time I checked, we managed to raise $325. Thank you so much to all of you who have chosen to sponsor Eden. We’re immensely grateful to you all.

I never really told anyone why I was really excited to be offered a chance to participate in this year’s Blogathon by Yvonne.

When I lived in Kuching, I was blessed to have a healthy family, and I was very privileged to be able to be active many sports. When I came to Perth to study, my whole world changed in the blink of an eye.

I was sent to live with my grandparents who had migrated to Perth more than a decade ago. My grandfather is in the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease, and he is also partially deaf. He also has weak legs due to a fall several years earlier. He couldn’t go out without a wheelchair, and struggled to even feed himself.

My grandmother was his full time carer, and without her, my grandfather would not be able to have his daily needs tended to.

It was at home that I got to witness the hardships of living with a disabled person first hand. There are many things that my grandfather could not do, and my grandmother had to always be around to make sure he didn’t choke on his food and to help him clean himself.

My grandfather had to be put in special chair, and at first, my grandmother moved him herself with the aid of a special sling.

Later on, as his condition got worse, we were sent a full hoist that literally lifted my grandfather from bed to wheelchair, and wheelchair to armchair.

Everyday was routine for my grandparents, and it became harder and harder to go anywhere out of the house.

After being at my peak back in Kuching, I felt utterly helpless here. There seemed like nothing I could do to make things better, except help clean the house a bit and help move my grandfather from place to place.

You need to have special training to handle the disabled. People are fragile, and no one should be ever left to be manhandled by untrained amatuers.

We were fortunate to have Silverchain, a free organisation that is something like Eden that gave aid to carers and to the disabled a few days a week, come over and help. That way, my grandmother could take a well-deserved break.

Without organisations like these, many many families with disabled members would not be able to cope. That it why I’m glad to do what ever little bit I can for Eden.

“Make a difference”, “make it better” all sound like nice phrases to everyone. But warm fuzzy feelings aside, it is people who really need those services who feel the impact the most.

Carers would be able to take a break. The disabled would get the care they need. This IS for a good cause, and while you may think that we Blogathoners are hogging the limelight and spamming PPS, stop and think awhile.

It may be easy for you to call us selfish while sitting in front of your comfortable computer. But tell me, do you KNOW how hard it is to be disabled? Do you know how hard it is to care for a disabled person? Do you know what it’s like to worry about every single thing, because a life hangs in your care? Because someone is entirely dependant on you for survival?

Organisations like Eden desperately need that money to continue giving out these much needed services for free so that people like my grandmother can take a much-needed break to make sure she doesn’t suffer too. It’s so that people like my grandfather are being kept alive by plenty of love, care and attention.

It’s so easy to dismiss people like us who are blogging for charity. We aren’t doing this for ourselves. Publicity doesn’t matter to us. BUT, it matters for Eden. Who will be their voice if people like you and me don’t step up and say something? We’re doing this because we want to help make a difference.

There’s only half an hour left, so I urge you all, PLEASE do pledge for Eden. So many people would be eternally grateful if you could.

By Jess 

I must say, it’s been a great experience being a part of this team. From waking up at 2.30am (trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to wake up my parents), to staying awake the whole day when they finally got up around 7am (so that they didn’t get suspicious!). From planning what to write and thinking out drafts in my head for the past few days.

Thank you Yvonne, once again. (:

Now I’m off for dinner with darling Melanie who actually gave me a wake up call so that I wouldn’t oversleep this morning and miss my shift. Which means that she gets a free drink from me! And we’re going to take pictures of White Lady, cha kueh, satay and food-food-food to tempt our Sadistic Stef who’s far away in NZ. My dear, dear friends. Where would I be without you guys?

Remember to make your pledges people!!

This is Jessica, signing off for the last time.

By Jess

Can’t blog about baking and not put up a recipe, right? Tried, tested and approved by my greatest critic : my mom.

Chocolate Chip & Nuts Cookies

You will need:

1. 250g butter
2. 450g brown sugar
3. 1 egg
4. 2 tsp vanilla essence
5. 525g self-raising flour
6. 50g nibbed almonds
7. 2006 chocolate chips

Before you start mixing everything, preheat your oven to about 170^oC.

The Mixing

First, beat the butter and brown sugar until it’s light and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla essence and continue to beat the mixture. Next, stir the flour into the mixture. And finally, stir in the nibbed almonds and chocolate chips.

The Baking

Bake cookies for about 20-25 minutes. The size depends entirely on you, however big or however small you want it to be (I usually use about half a tablespoon for each cookie). The cookies spread when they bake, so remember to leave space between each cookie for spreading!

Happy baking! Do let me know how they turn out if you ever try this.

By Jess

Whenever I’m stressed out, baking can always make me feel better.

The part I like the most about baking is not the eating. It’s the beating, dicing, chopping, stirring, blending, rolling, moulding, shifting, cutting, washing up. It’s very relaxing. And the thing about baking is that all you have to do is follow the recipe. Or not follow it at all. It’s all up to you.

Believe me, baking can really be very relaxing.

I like baking because when I bake, I feel like I’m in control of the situation. I like to bake more than I like eating what I bake. It’s a good thing that I have constantly hungry family members and friends to finish up my creations.

It’s the journey that counts, not the destination.

By Jess

You wanna know what some students say the school prefects are?

Dogs.

We serve the school, so we’re dogs. So if we don’t serve the school, that would make us…cats? Hehe. I don’t get it. We’re just something to help out. Why call us dogs? Of course, only some students call us dogs. But I tell you, it’s more than enough. ):

Another thing I don’t get is why do the students see us as being against them? We’re students, just like you are. Do you think we actually care whether or not you tie your hair, tuck in your shirt, wear you tie properly, bring handphones to school or wear more than one pair of earrings?

Actually, we don’t care.

But school rules are school rules. We don’t think we’re better than you or anything. We’re just doing our part. So can’t you make our job easier? You’re happy, I’m happy, so we’re all happy together, right?

I never really had that many problems with the students though. They learnt quickly that the fact that I’m a girl and so much shorter than them didn’t mean that I would be afraid of them. Stare at me and I’ll stare right back. Gggrrr…!!

I’ll let you in on my little secret. It made me many new friends. I kinda miss prefect duty now because I don’t get to see them that often anymore. Me being too lazy to go down to the canteen during recess. It also helped cool down heated situations many a time. And what is it?

Smile and say please. (:

By Jess

I was a very quiet prefect when I was a Form Four/Five prefect. The only other prefects I mixed around with were my group members. I always felt like the excos were far, far away somewhere up there in the clouds and that I was way, way down below somewhere underground.

But all that changed when I got chosen to be an exco when I came back for Form Six.

“Hey, I’m up here! Muahahaha…look at you down there!! You little, little things!”

Hehe.

I got promoted further up the totem pole again when the Assistant Head Girl left for Curtin. I was originally one of the co-heads of one of the groups. As a co-head of a group, I had prefects under me. There was this family feeling going around. But my first week as the Assistant Head Girl only left me feeling very disconnected.

Well, needless to say, I made sure I got to know the prefects. And they got to know me too. I think I came across as the one who’s usually smiling, making jokes, the really happy and giggly exco. As opposed to all the other serious faces. And my partner-in-crime was just like me! Perfect!

Prefect to exco link? Mended and fortified. (: