A fellow ovarian cancer warrior, Molly Lee, who took the extraordinary road of dealing with her cancer with her inspirational blog, and touched thousands of people along the way through it, passed away last month. She fought the disease all the way with amazing courage, and in the end, was truly a WonderWoman.
I never got to meet her in person (though hubby&I met her husband briefly when we paid our last respects at her wake), but I feel like I have known her as if we were friends for a long time, by merely 'walking' through her blog ..
http://www.wearewonderwomen.com/ ..and feeling most of what she felt in her postings.
This article on the Today newspaper, says it best..
Wonderwoman loses battle with cancer
Even in the last painful stretch, Molly Lee strove to help her blog’s readers
Friday • May 30, 2008 Today Online, Lin Yanqin yanqin@mediacorp.com.sg
THERE were countless letters to answer, talks to give, and many more women to encourage, but this wonder woman wasn’t able to do it all.
After three years of fighting ovarian cancer, Ms Molly Lee — who had wonVanilla magazine’s inaugural Singapore Woman Award in March for starting a highly-popular blog on cancer — died yesterday morning. Battling her second relapse when she won the award, Ms Lee, 33, was a fighter all the way to end, said husband Josef Lee.
“She was very cheerful, and she had plans,” he said. “She wanted to give talks to women about her experience with cancer, she wanted to reach out to more people.”
The publicity led many to discover her blog — www.WeAreWonderwomen.com — after she was featured in Vanilla magazine as a nominee, the number of hits she received rose from 80 to more than 130 a day.
“I would update her on the comments on her blog every day, and the letters and email she received, and she tried very hard to respond to all of them,” said Mr Lee, 29, a broadcast designer.
This, in spite of being in tremendous pain and discomfort from the disease and the chemotherapy.
“From April, it was just bad news all the way; we were told that the treatment wasn’t working. The tumours were causing her stomach to swell and she couldn’t do anything, she couldn’t sleep for days because of the pain,” added Mr Lee.
Through it all, Ms Lee made sure to update her blog when she could, getting her husband to type her posts when she was too ill to do it herself.
“She felt that it was almost like her responsibility to respond to the readers who were asking her for advice,” said Mr Lee. “At the same time, I think the encouragement from readers gave her a lot of strength, they inspired her too.”
Since Mr Lee posted about Ms Lee passing away yesterday morning, well-wishers have posted more than 20 responses. Said one: “Goodbye Molly, may you rest in peace ... Thank you for inspiring so many of us to be strong and be positive in the way we look at our lives. You will be missed.”
Said Vanilla :assistant editor Ms Pamela Ho, who had interviewed Molly for the magazine: “I think people will remember her strength, the way she never talked like she was going to die. She always talked about the things she liked to do, her favourite food, because she was so optimistic.”
Mr Lee hopes to continue running the blog — which has seen over 23,000 hits since its inception last year — as a place women can go to to share their own experiences fighting cancer and to seek answers to their questions.
“I do hope more women will continue to come and share their experiences,” he said. “That’s what the blog was created for, and I hope to continue it.”
Those who wish to pay last respects to Ms Lee can do so at Punggol Field, Block 203 (Multipurpose Hall), from now until Sunday when the cremation will take place.
