LAST year, Dr William Tan gave more than 30 inspirational talks around the world, sharing the secrets of turning adversity into opportunity.
He is well suited to that role, having overcome his disability - he has been paralysed from the waist down since the age of two due to polio - to become both a medical doctor and neuroscientist and a charity fund-raiser and wheelchair marathoner who has set many world records.
But on April 14 this year, the Fulbright scholar met a hurdle he was not prepared to tackle. He was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, a cancer where the B blood cells which normally fight infections are not only damaged but grow out of control, pushing out other blood cells.
