Irene Kang, 54, is svelte, tanned and extremely fit. She has a brilliant smile that’s as big as she is petite—kind of like an Asian Reese Witherspoon.
She wasn’t always such a happy, healthy, peaceful individual. Nine years ago, in 2012, Irene discovered a hard lump beneath her right breast.
“I panicked,” she recalls. “I had just gone for my yearly mammogram just eight months before, and there was nothing.”
It was the final day of her annual leave that she had taken—she had just returned from a holiday with her twin children. “I had to return to work the next day —I was working for a multinational private bank as Group Risk Director. So, I went to work, then took half day leave to visit NUH Breast Cancer Centre. Dr Mikael Hartman was the breast cancer doctor who saw me, and after inspecting me, he requested for a biopsy to be done the next day. I knew on the third day that I had Stage 2 breast cancer.”
It came as a complete shock. While the hospital was arranging the tests and follow-ups, Irene found herself crying. Foremost on her mind were her children and her career. “I asked my doctor that day, ‘When will I be able to go back to work?’” she says, adding that she had always prioritised work up to that point.
Irene continues, “At the beginning, I was determined to fight the cancer and did what I had to do very quickly,” she shares. “I met the plastic surgeon at NUH and planned on re-construction. I had to decide between a mastectomy and a lumpectomy, and as my priority was to get rid of all the cancer, I opted for a mastectomy with reconstruction using with fats from my tummy. Within a week of my diagnosis, I had my operation.”
While she had expected to fully recover quickly, things did not turn out that way. “Post-operation, it was confirmed the cancer I had was Stage 3A and HER2-positive. Out of 15 lymph nodes taken out, 12 were cancerous.”
This meant that the cancer had spread beyond the tumour, and it also tested positive for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), which promotes cancer cell growth. Given the aggressive nature of the cancer, the treatments prescribed to Irene were the maximum: “I had to go through four cycles of AC/DC chemo, eight cycles of another milder chemo, 18 cycles of radiotherapy, and 28 cycles of Herceptin.”
THINGS FALL APART
While she handled the surgery well, the post-surgery regime got to Irene, particularly the seemingly endless chemotherapy—she developed a phobia of it.
“Another reason I was depressed, apart from the fear of chemo treatments, was that my right breast was badly scarred. My nipple had been removed and there were scars across my breast,” she shares candidly.
Things got worse when the six months of paid leave her company had granted her drew to an end.
“I was not ready to go back. I had lost my confidence totally,” she remembers. When she told them she needed more time, she was told that the company could not hold her position—a senior one—for her, and that she would be let go.
It was upsetting and she lost her source of income, but “at that time, my priority was health—I had to concentrate on my recovery,” she says. However, the stress of the treatments, losing her job, a failing marriage and having two children in Primary 3 to raise was too much for her: Irene fell into depression. “I was so depressed I had to see a psychiatrist, but the medication didn’t really help,” she says.
The pressure and fear she had of chemotherapy got so severe, Irene had to stop treatment for a period until she was mentally stronger. “Throughout my journey, I couldn’t accept that I got breast cancer,” she shares. “I was in denial. I had lost everything, including my job. My turning point was when I started praying about a year after I was diagnosed.”
It took eight months but Irene overcame depression. “I’m Catholic, and I prayed,” she says. “At that time, I was doing nothing but going to hospital and staying alive, and a church friend would come to pray for me.”
She endured her treatments through 2013. By the end of that year, Irene was back, stronger. “My hair grew back. And I started to reflect on what I wanted to do, whether to go back to work, or do something else, something that had purpose and meaning.”
LETTING GO OF THE OLD, EMBRACING THE NEW
By 2014, Irene was cancer-free. She was no longer the same person she was before cancer.
“When cancer came, I started contemplating what caused me to be an unhappy person,” she says, adding that the stress and unhappiness caused by her former lifestyle played a part in having cancer.
“My marriage was very stressful; we had issues of trust. As a Chinese woman I felt I needed to fulfil the obligation to get married and have children, and so I clung on,” she shares. “After cancer, I realised that in order for me to move ahead, I needed to let go.”
In 2015, after praying and seeking guidance from three priests, she knew it was the right thing to do. She met a lady lawyer in her church who helped her with the divorce, and “it went smoothly. I didn’t fight for anything but the kids. I didn’t contest anything. In fact, it went so well, after I signed the papers, I went to eat Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice with him and the kids. It felt very peaceful, so I took it as a sign from God. After my divorce, I felt happy and alive again—I no longer have an obligation to fulfil.” To this day, the exes remain cordial.
In 2013, Irene began to take her body back. While before cancer, she did exercise, but “I wasn’t fit.” During her recovery, she joined the Breast Cancer Foundation and signed up for its fitness classes, such as Zumba. She also joined its celebrated dragon boat crew, the Pink Paddlers.
“One lady said to me, ‘You have passion, you should teach!’ And that started me thinking. It’s true I do things with passion, and the idea to teach fitness made sense to me,” she recalls. “So I started to explore the idea of getting certified as a fitness instructor.”
While her first choice was Zumba, Irene found an opportunity with Jumping Fitness. “Jumping Fitness was introduced to me in early 2015 when Jumping Singapore started this programme in Singapore,” she explains. “When I came to know that jumping helps in lymph drainage, I knew that it was God who connected the dots for me, and I have not looked back since. I was in the first batch of certified Jumping Fitness instructors in early 2015, and it’s a sport that has helped me stay fit and healthy these past six years. I also teach other group fitness programmes such as Piloxing and Pound.”
“From 2015 to 2018, I was very busy teaching classes,” she says. “I also participated in sports events under SportsSG and also National Day events.” Today, Irene teaches Jumping Fitness with Jumping Singapore, which is a social enterprise under New Hope Community Services, at Far East Plaza, at Peninsular Shopping Centre and other locations.
For Irene, teaching fitness gives her a way to share her journey with other women. “I strongly believe the mental and physical suffering I went through with breast cancer was a blessing in disguise,” she says. “My attitude in life totally changed. I now live life with a purpose, and I live my moment. I use Jumping Fitness as a platform, a way of reaching out to women who are going through the same, to give them hope. At the same time I want to put out the message that breast cancer is not a death sentence; many women come out stronger. Seeing me is believing.”
Irene’s first students were mostly women, of all ages, from all walks of life, career women as well as housewives. “I set up a support group for women who survived cancers of all sorts, and ran Jumping classes. This group of cancer survivors even did a group performance with me at Jumping party in 2019,” says Irene.
Jumping Fitness has given Irene a new lease of life. “I’m happy,” she says. “I enjoy teaching in front of a group. It also keeps me active and I get to meet many people in the process.”
Irene is honest about the fact that her life now may not look like typical success to people. Working as a freelance fitness instructor, she is only paid each time she teaches. Still, “I live simply. All my treatment was taken care of by insurance—it amounted to nearly $400,000, because each of the treatments cost around $5,000. My children’s education is supported by their father. I was quite well-paid in my previous job, but in my mind, life was all about work. Now I tell many women, I have not had a fulltime banking job for close to 10 years, just teaching freelance fitness classes. I am still happy and alive.”
She recalls what her psychiatrist said to her, “He said ‘You have this problem, it’s called adjustment disorder’. Suddenly finding myself house-bound, losing my hair, everything had changed overnight, and it hit me hard.”
Having lived through all that, Irene’s advice to other women now is this: “The priority of your life has to change: you have to take care of your body first, because that’s where you live 24/7. When you take care of your body, your mind is also healthy. You become more self-aware and know what’s really important.”
For women reading this, Irene encourage vigilance and regular breast self-examination. Catching that lump early was a good thing, even if the treatment was hard. “Early detection saves lives,” she emphasises. “Cancer is not a death sentence. There is hope after breast cancer.”
