By Sandra Davie, Senior Writer

IT WAS unexplained aches and pains all over his body that set the alarm bells ringing for Mr Simon Woo, but something so niggling surely could not mean cancer.

The head of facilities management at the Institute of Technical Education was 56 after all, so the usual creaks that come with age were to be expected - and that was just what a succession of experts told him.

He trekked from one general practitioner to another and tried a series of sinsehs, acupuncturists and massotherapists, and ended up at the same place: 'You're getting on a bit, just take it easy.'

But Mr Woo was unsatisfied and had a full screening, including blood tests, a colonoscopy and gastroendoscopy. Even then, his condition still eluded the doctors.

It was only when he ended up at the National University Hospital, following a bout of diarrhoea and paralysing numbness in his legs, that the doctors realised that it could be something more serious.

After a series of investigations, a scan finally showed up a secondary tumour in his spine that was then traced to a tumour in his lungs.

The months of unease and medical checks finally ended with a grim punchline: Mr Woo's wife, Madam Jessie Lim, and their medical researcher son Kelvin were told that it was stage IV lung cancer and that he had six months to live.