Nearly two weeks before Christmas in 2025, 31-year-old Teresa Hon underwent brain surgery for glioblastoma – the most aggressive and fastest-growing type of brain cancer, and a rare one.
With a tumour size of more than 6cm, it was a highly complex surgery. Because the tumour was close to parts of the brain controlling vital functions, her surgeon could not remove the whole tumour without risking speech loss, hearing loss or paralysis.
Her husband Bjorn Chua remembers watching his wife being wheeled into the operating theatre where 10 to 20 medical professionals
The surgery was supposed to take four to six hours, so when the neurosurgeon emerged in just two and a half, Chua panicked: “I thought my wife died.”
But the surgery was a success. And while Hon was recovering in the intensive care unit,
It seemed like the oddest thing to do at such a crucial moment, but Chua knew that after the operation, his wife would not want
A former Singapore Airlines air stewardess, her world had collapsed in little over a month when symptoms of her cancer first appeared.
Teresa Hon with her oncologist Dr Valerie Yang Shiwen – glioblastoma is the most aggressive type of brain cancer and is incurable. (Photo: Dr Valerie Yang)
She began vomiting uncontrollably, convulsing with seizures, and tearing out her hair in excruciating pain. Unable to walk properly, she required a wheelchair.
Before the operation, her eyes turned in different directions because of compression from the tumour. “Her right eye could be looking at you straight, and her left eye would be looking left,” Chua recalled.
For Chua, tinting his car windows was a gesture of love and hope. He wanted his car to be a “safe place for her” on her recovery journey.
Glioblastoma affects the brain, the organ responsible for cognition, memory, language, personality, movement and appearance – everything that makes us who we are.
With glioblastoma, changes can be profound. But for Hon, the changes came with shocking speed.
Teresa Hon’s oncologist Dr Valerie Yang Shiwen from OncoCare Cancer Centre explains.
Rare and highly aggressive: It is a rare cancer – approximately only 100 cases of glioblastoma are diagnosed in Singapore each year.
Causes: There is no known cause for glioblastoma, though some inherited genes may predispose a small percentage of patients to the disease.
Symptoms: These include persistent headaches, seizures, and progressive neurological deficits such as weakness, speech difficulties, vision problems, memory loss or personality changes.
Treatment: Surgery is usually performed to remove as much of the tumour as safely possible, followed by radiation therapy and chemotherapy.
Often, complete removal of the tumour is not possible without compromising critical structures in the brain, which can cause weakness, paralysis, loss of speech or vision, personality shifts, loss of inhibition, profound drowsiness or a coma, and affect breathing, swallowing, and heart and lung function.
However, even in cases where the entire visible tumour can be removed, microscopic cancer cells that have spread into surrounding brain tissue often remain. Radiation therapy, chemotherapy and other drug treatments usually cannot eliminate all these remaining cancer cells.
People diagnosed with glioblastoma typically survive 12 to 18 months.
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The couple tied the knot in 2023. “We were living, dreaming and planning for the future. We did everything together – went to the gym, golfed and travelled frequently,” she told CNA Women.
In 2025, she left Singapore Airlines and began work as a retail staff at Marina Bay Sands when the headaches suddenly began.
She was prescribed painkillers, but the headaches persisted and built up to a “hammering” intensity. Hon vomited everything she ate, and when her stomach was empty, threw up gastric juices.
Hon tied the knot with her husband Bjorn Chua in 2023. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
After consulting a neurologist,
It showed a tumour so large it looked like it covered almost a third of the brain, Chua recalled. It was later diagnosed as grade 4 glioblastoma.
On Dec 10 last year, Hon was admitted into hospital for surgery.
She began to have seizures. “She was gripping her hair so tightly and pulling it so hard that I could not open her hands.
“I was really afraid she would pull her scalp out so I held the centre of her long hair to stop her from pulling it out while waiting for doctors and nurses to calm her down (with medication),” Chua said.
On the morning of the surgery, Hon was surprisingly calm. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Chua recalled her telling him.
“I don’t know why she had that kind of unspoken strength then,” Chua said. “It could be because of the pain that she had gone through.”
The surgeon removed more than 40 per cent of the tumour. When Chua visited Hon in the intensive care unit shortly after the surgery, she was awake.
“She smiled at me and said, 'hello, baby'," he said. “I was shocked but also just relieved to have her back.”
Hon shortly after brain surgery. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
Hon has no memory of the period leading up to her surgery. But after the operation, her awareness returned. And it felt like everything came crashing down.
“I woke up a different person,” she said.
During the operation, the surgeon had made an incision across her scalp and removed a section of her skull to access the brain and tumour. Once the tumour was removed, the skull was put back and the scalp stitched up, leaving a bald patch around the incision, the couple explained.
“My eyes looked different, my face was swollen,” she said. Because of steroids she began taking before the surgery to reduce inflammation and prevent swelling in the brain, Hon’s appetite also increased dramatically. Over the following weeks, she went from an XS or S to an M or L, she said.
“There are days when I feel terrified and I would grieve the person I used to be,” Hon said. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
For a while during her hospitalisation,
After her discharge on Dec 29, 2025, Hon went for radiation therapy to target the remaining tumour cells almost daily for six weeks. She is now undergoing chemotherapy.
She has since resigned from her job. For months, she could not walk properly nor enjoy her favourite activities such as golfing and going to the gym.
An MRI of her knees revealed that the blood vessels supplying the bones had become blocked because of long-term steroid usage and the bones had died, Chua explained.
“My looks, my legs and my life (had changed),” Hon reflected. “I had
Unable to accept this, Hon hid from the world.
“I didn’t speak to anybody. When I bumped into friends, I avoided them, asking my family to shield me. I mostly stayed at home or in the car. I didn’t want people to see me in this state,” she said.
But Hon’s family rallied around her.
Chua, a senior director at a real estate agency, set aside work and sacrificed sleep to care for her.
Chua took Hon to Okinawa, Japan, in April 2026 to celebrate her completing intensive radiation therapy. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
A happy moment for Hon in Okinawa, Japan. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
Knowing that she wished for her beautiful hair back, Chua even helped
Medical bills are high – between S$300,000 and S$400,000. Because the couple have yet to receive insurance reimbursements, Hon’s mother-in-law Linda Gan offered to sell her flat to help cover the bills. The couple turned down the offer, but were deeply moved.
Gan, who is 70, also cooked for Hon daily after her surgery – sometimes, up to four to five meals a day – to support her cancer battle. “My mother-in-law’s fingers dried out and bled because of the washing,” Hon said.
Hon cooking a meal with her mother-in-law (left) in May 2026. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
Hon (right) with her sister, who visits frequently from Penang. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
Hon’s sister, Hon Sie May,
Over time, this unwavering love gave Hon courage. She no longer hides from the world.
Hon’s tumour has also since shrunk to less than half its original size. With therapy, she is also gradually recovering her mobility and beginning to play golf again.
Nonetheless, Hon knows that glioblastoma is incurable and her future is uncertain.
“I’m slowly accepting the cancer. I don’t want to let the disease define who I am. It’s part of my story,” said Hon. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
Because of how fast the cancer progressed, Hon did not have time to freeze her eggs before starting chemotherapy, which can affect fertility.
But the couple are at peace with that. They have a beloved toy poodle, and plan to expand their fur family with a second one, regardless of whether they have children. They also dream of travelling the world and golfing together.
“There was a point when I told (my husband) I wanted to give up. He could find another girl, remarry and forget me,” Hon said.
This brought Chua to tears. He rejected the idea. “I don’t want to remarry. I only have one wife. I’ll just stick to this one,” Chua said plainly.
Tears streamed down his wife’s eyes when Chua said this.
After a pause, she said quietly. “Now when I think back, I realised I was very silly to think that way. I am not scared. I want to fight.”
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg.
Continue reading...
With a tumour size of more than 6cm, it was a highly complex surgery. Because the tumour was close to parts of the brain controlling vital functions, her surgeon could not remove the whole tumour without risking speech loss, hearing loss or paralysis.
Her husband Bjorn Chua remembers watching his wife being wheeled into the operating theatre where 10 to 20 medical professionals
The surgery was supposed to take four to six hours, so when the neurosurgeon emerged in just two and a half, Chua panicked: “I thought my wife died.”
But the surgery was a success. And while Hon was recovering in the intensive care unit,
It seemed like the oddest thing to do at such a crucial moment, but Chua knew that after the operation, his wife would not want
A former Singapore Airlines air stewardess, her world had collapsed in little over a month when symptoms of her cancer first appeared.
Teresa Hon with her oncologist Dr Valerie Yang Shiwen – glioblastoma is the most aggressive type of brain cancer and is incurable. (Photo: Dr Valerie Yang)
She began vomiting uncontrollably, convulsing with seizures, and tearing out her hair in excruciating pain. Unable to walk properly, she required a wheelchair.
Before the operation, her eyes turned in different directions because of compression from the tumour. “Her right eye could be looking at you straight, and her left eye would be looking left,” Chua recalled.
For Chua, tinting his car windows was a gesture of love and hope. He wanted his car to be a “safe place for her” on her recovery journey.
THE DAY HER WORLD SHIFTED
Glioblastoma affects the brain, the organ responsible for cognition, memory, language, personality, movement and appearance – everything that makes us who we are.
With glioblastoma, changes can be profound. But for Hon, the changes came with shocking speed.
WHAT IS GLIOBLASTOMA?
Teresa Hon’s oncologist Dr Valerie Yang Shiwen from OncoCare Cancer Centre explains.
Rare and highly aggressive: It is a rare cancer – approximately only 100 cases of glioblastoma are diagnosed in Singapore each year.
Causes: There is no known cause for glioblastoma, though some inherited genes may predispose a small percentage of patients to the disease.
Symptoms: These include persistent headaches, seizures, and progressive neurological deficits such as weakness, speech difficulties, vision problems, memory loss or personality changes.
Treatment: Surgery is usually performed to remove as much of the tumour as safely possible, followed by radiation therapy and chemotherapy.
Often, complete removal of the tumour is not possible without compromising critical structures in the brain, which can cause weakness, paralysis, loss of speech or vision, personality shifts, loss of inhibition, profound drowsiness or a coma, and affect breathing, swallowing, and heart and lung function.
However, even in cases where the entire visible tumour can be removed, microscopic cancer cells that have spread into surrounding brain tissue often remain. Radiation therapy, chemotherapy and other drug treatments usually cannot eliminate all these remaining cancer cells.
People diagnosed with glioblastoma typically survive 12 to 18 months.
Collapse Expand
The couple tied the knot in 2023. “We were living, dreaming and planning for the future. We did everything together – went to the gym, golfed and travelled frequently,” she told CNA Women.
In 2025, she left Singapore Airlines and began work as a retail staff at Marina Bay Sands when the headaches suddenly began.
She was prescribed painkillers, but the headaches persisted and built up to a “hammering” intensity. Hon vomited everything she ate, and when her stomach was empty, threw up gastric juices.
Hon tied the knot with her husband Bjorn Chua in 2023. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
After consulting a neurologist,
It showed a tumour so large it looked like it covered almost a third of the brain, Chua recalled. It was later diagnosed as grade 4 glioblastoma.
On Dec 10 last year, Hon was admitted into hospital for surgery.
She began to have seizures. “She was gripping her hair so tightly and pulling it so hard that I could not open her hands.
“I was really afraid she would pull her scalp out so I held the centre of her long hair to stop her from pulling it out while waiting for doctors and nurses to calm her down (with medication),” Chua said.
On the morning of the surgery, Hon was surprisingly calm. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Chua recalled her telling him.
“I don’t know why she had that kind of unspoken strength then,” Chua said. “It could be because of the pain that she had gone through.”
The surgeon removed more than 40 per cent of the tumour. When Chua visited Hon in the intensive care unit shortly after the surgery, she was awake.
“She smiled at me and said, 'hello, baby'," he said. “I was shocked but also just relieved to have her back.”
Hon shortly after brain surgery. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
A LIFE REWRITTEN
Hon has no memory of the period leading up to her surgery. But after the operation, her awareness returned. And it felt like everything came crashing down.
“I woke up a different person,” she said.
During the operation, the surgeon had made an incision across her scalp and removed a section of her skull to access the brain and tumour. Once the tumour was removed, the skull was put back and the scalp stitched up, leaving a bald patch around the incision, the couple explained.
“My eyes looked different, my face was swollen,” she said. Because of steroids she began taking before the surgery to reduce inflammation and prevent swelling in the brain, Hon’s appetite also increased dramatically. Over the following weeks, she went from an XS or S to an M or L, she said.
“There are days when I feel terrified and I would grieve the person I used to be,” Hon said. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
For a while during her hospitalisation,
After her discharge on Dec 29, 2025, Hon went for radiation therapy to target the remaining tumour cells almost daily for six weeks. She is now undergoing chemotherapy.
She has since resigned from her job. For months, she could not walk properly nor enjoy her favourite activities such as golfing and going to the gym.
An MRI of her knees revealed that the blood vessels supplying the bones had become blocked because of long-term steroid usage and the bones had died, Chua explained.
“My looks, my legs and my life (had changed),” Hon reflected. “I had
Unable to accept this, Hon hid from the world.
“I didn’t speak to anybody. When I bumped into friends, I avoided them, asking my family to shield me. I mostly stayed at home or in the car. I didn’t want people to see me in this state,” she said.
But Hon’s family rallied around her.
Chua, a senior director at a real estate agency, set aside work and sacrificed sleep to care for her.
Chua took Hon to Okinawa, Japan, in April 2026 to celebrate her completing intensive radiation therapy. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
A happy moment for Hon in Okinawa, Japan. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
Knowing that she wished for her beautiful hair back, Chua even helped
Medical bills are high – between S$300,000 and S$400,000. Because the couple have yet to receive insurance reimbursements, Hon’s mother-in-law Linda Gan offered to sell her flat to help cover the bills. The couple turned down the offer, but were deeply moved.
Gan, who is 70, also cooked for Hon daily after her surgery – sometimes, up to four to five meals a day – to support her cancer battle. “My mother-in-law’s fingers dried out and bled because of the washing,” Hon said.
Hon cooking a meal with her mother-in-law (left) in May 2026. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
Hon (right) with her sister, who visits frequently from Penang. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
Hon’s sister, Hon Sie May,
Over time, this unwavering love gave Hon courage. She no longer hides from the world.
Hon’s tumour has also since shrunk to less than half its original size. With therapy, she is also gradually recovering her mobility and beginning to play golf again.
Nonetheless, Hon knows that glioblastoma is incurable and her future is uncertain.
“I’m slowly accepting the cancer. I don’t want to let the disease define who I am. It’s part of my story,” said Hon. (Photo: Bjorn Chua)
Because of how fast the cancer progressed, Hon did not have time to freeze her eggs before starting chemotherapy, which can affect fertility.
But the couple are at peace with that. They have a beloved toy poodle, and plan to expand their fur family with a second one, regardless of whether they have children. They also dream of travelling the world and golfing together.
“There was a point when I told (my husband) I wanted to give up. He could find another girl, remarry and forget me,” Hon said.
This brought Chua to tears. He rejected the idea. “I don’t want to remarry. I only have one wife. I’ll just stick to this one,” Chua said plainly.
Tears streamed down his wife’s eyes when Chua said this.
After a pause, she said quietly. “Now when I think back, I realised I was very silly to think that way. I am not scared. I want to fight.”
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg.
Continue reading...