Lloyd Tan - The Selfless Warrior

Spotlight: Lloyd Tan takes stigma out of Parkinson'sMost Parkinson's patients tend to shy away from the public due to their illness.Heidi FooNSTOnlind - But Lloyd Tan Pao Chan went against the grain, doing things most PD patients would never dream of.After being diagnosed at 55, he did not give in to his fears or sense of despair.Rather, he founded the Malaysian Parkinson's Disease Association (MPDA) in 1994, becoming its life president.Eleven years later and permanently in a wheelchair, he again did the unthinkable.He travelled to Hong Kong to represent the country in the Asian and Pacific Parkinson's Association (APPA) conference.This was also where Pantai Cheras Medical Centre neurologist, Dr Chew Nee Kong, saw the beginnings of a book on Tan which he later published as the Selfless Warrior.Their relationship had begun as doctor and patient but ended up as friends.Dr Chew said what had struck him first about Tan was his resilience in the face of the disease."For a PD patient to leave the house is a great obstacle. And for a Parkinson's patient to leave the house, and declare to the whole country that you have PD is at least 10 times more challenging because of the social stigma."In my experience, at least seven out of 10 PD patients shy away from society. They prefer to stay indoors because the illness causes uncontrollable trembling of the hands."But Tan took it all in his stride, according to Dr Chew's book.The second last chapter entitled "Mr Lloyd did not have PD" is about how Tan first showed symptoms of PD at 53 years and was diagnosed in a local hospital two years later."After treating him for a few years, I discovered that what he had was not PD. What he had was actually Parkinsonism-Plus Syndrome (PPS). "It came as a real shock. That was in 2004, when I revised his diagnosis, it was exactly 16 years after his illness started."Dr Chew said it was not unusual to revise a PD patient's diagnosis after eight or 10 years as wrong diagnosis could occur."PPS is actually 10 times worse than PD. In the sense that they are 10 times slower, their legs feel much more heavier and the suffering is much more severe.""Yet, he did so many things for the Parkinson's community. As a patient alone he actually outclassed other Parkinson's patients."He said there were about 15,000 PD and PPS patients in the country.In April last year, a month after Tan died, Dr Chew was inspired by Tan's fighting spirit to write the book.