By Geraldine Haruka Ling

It was his mother's illness that brought about his good grades.

Two years ago, 19-year-old Chong Woon Han left Kuala Lumpur for a life in Singapore, together with his three younger brothers and Singaporean mother.

The Chong brothers, all Malaysian citizens, had decided to leave home because they wanted to support their mother emotionally through one of the darkest periods of her life.

Mrs Chong, a former interior designer in her late 40s, had been diagnosed with breast cancer and wanted to seek medical rehabilitation in Singapore.

Their father, 51, a businessman, had to stay back in KL for work.

Rejected by schools

Moving to Singapore was not an easy move for Woon Han as he had to leave all his friends and classmates behind.

In fact, his decision to leave home almost cost him dearly - he was rejected by almost every Singapore school that he applied for.

Determined to help her son, Mrs Chong went knocking on the doors of various schools in the western part of Singapore laboriously to see if they could take her son in.

The family wanted Woon Han to attend a school close to their home in Commonwealth Drive.

Her efforts almost went to waste when most of the schools she approached turned her away, except for Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road).

Seeing how hard his mother worked to help him stay in Singapore, Woon Han resolved to improve on his grades - he had been a weak student back in his KL school.

"I knew what it was like to do badly in school and I didn't want to waste the effort that my mum put in to bring my family to Singapore," he said.

Woon Han explained to AsiaOne that he was weak in his studies because his former school taught its subjects in Chinese.

Being brought up in an English-speaking home, he found it hard to catch up with lessons due to a weak grasp of the Chinese language.

History was especially challenging as he found it difficult to express his thoughts in Chinese while writing essays.

He scored well in mathematics as it was a technical subject which did not require much language skills.

Unfortunately, his grades plunged further when he found out about his mother's ailment, as thinking about her cancer distracted him from his studies.

However, things started changing once he settled into his new school.

He found it easier to cope with the lessons as they were conducted in his first language, English.

Remembering his new resolution to work hard for his mother, he stayed back in school everyday to study and paid close attention in class.

His efforts paid off as he scored 8 A1s and an A2 in last year's O-level exams and became the top student at ACS (Barker).

Hit by bad news

Woon Han's life in Singapore over the past two years has been far from rosy.

As if struggling with Singapore's higher cost of living was not enough, his family was again hit with another blow in 2007 - his mother was diagnosed with cancer in her other breast.

At that time of the second diagnosis, she was still undergoing radiotherapy for her first affected breast.

Although Woon Han's mother did not want to trouble her sons over her illness, he still made it a point to pay attention to her emotional needs.

He recounted to AsiaOne how his mother would suddenly break down in tears because of the psychological strain chemotherapy had on her.

He said: "She needed a lot of love and I would try my best to talk to her and try not to cause trouble."

Woon Han also added that he always had a close relationship with his mother - the duo would often share chats in their living room where he would share with her his aspirations and girl problems. 

Now, his mother has completed chemotherapy and is looking for work as a writer.

Dreams for the future

When asked his plans for the future, the humble top student said that he wanted to continue helping the community by participating in humanitarian work.

Citing UNESCO as an inspiration, he said: "One of my dreams is to bring education to less developed nations.

"I learnt in geography lessons (at ACS (Barker)) that education influences human development.

"It opens more doors for people to have better lives."