Treatment for knee injury inspires doctor to study medicine
DANCING INTO MEDICAL SCHOOL: Miss Candice Loh who hopes to become a doctor, loves street dance.
PHOTO: Treatment for knee injury inspires doctor to study medicine
PUBLISHED ONSeptember 13, 2014 10:30 PM
SINGAPORE - Trained in traditional Chinese dance from a young age, Miss Candice Loh was forced to stop dancing because of a knee injury in Secondary 1.
Determined to return to dance, she went through more than two years of physiotherapy.
She spent lots of time in the hospital, getting her knee treated.
But now, she will be studying to be the one treating people with problems.
While dancing is a passion, medicine is what she plans to study full time.
The 19-year-old said: "I decided to look into healthcare to see what being a doctor was really like, and managed to get an attachment with Alexandra Hospital. So I thought, why not?"
That short stint last year with the hospital changed her perception completely.
She recalled: "I have seen doctors who give their best even for the smallest of things, and the initiative to help anyone in need, the heart to serve people, that was what made me want to be a part of this."
When she recovered from the injury, instead of returning to Chinese dance, Miss Loh decided to try something new and joined the school's street dance club.
FELL IN LOVE
She said: "I fell in love with the expressive movements of street dance and the joy a performance could bring the audience."
Receiving her white coat alongside 77 other freshmen medical students last month at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Miss Loh thanked her lucky stars for being chosen to join the cohort.
After being rejected by the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore, it was a long and hard process of applications, tests and interviews before she was accepted by the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in NTU.
She was one of the 800 students who had to take the entry test, known as the BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) .
She said with a laugh: "The BMAT was really tough, and most of us did quite badly. I don't know how people do this."
darit@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on Sep 12, 2014.
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