Life after... multiple myeloma: Pastor finds purpose after getting diagnosed with cancer in his 40s

SINGAPORE - Watching the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens – where American swimmer Michael Phelps won six gold and two bronze medals – inspired Mr David Ong to swim more regularly to keep fit.

However, his new swimming regimen, which he described as “vigorous”, soon led to pain in his chest, which he initially dismissed as muscular strain.

The pain persisted for a few weeks, and he visited a doctor, where an X-ray found three fractured ribs.

Subsequent checks, which included a battery of blood tests as well as radiological investigations, uncovered that Mr Ong – then a 44-year-old pastor with Faith Community Baptist Church – had Stage 3 multiple myeloma, a rare bone marrow cancer.

Its symptoms include bones that are easily fractured, as well as pain in the ribs and backbone.

Having previously served as a staff nurse at a hospital here in the 1980s, Mr Ong had heard of the disease, but thought it affected only the elderly.

“I was very devastated and confused,” Mr Ong, now aged 65, told The Straits Times.

Second-most common blood cancer

Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer that affects the bone marrow, characterised by excessive multiplication of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell.

It is the second-most common type of blood cancer in Singapore after lymphoma, with the country seeing some 120 new patients diagnosed each year.

It typically affects older men, with 65 being the average age when a multiple myeloma patient here is diagnosed.

Among those with the condition is property tycoon Ong Beng Seng, 79, who – after being found guilty of abetting the obstruction of justice in August – was

sentenced to a $30,000 fine,

as the judge noted that his cancer meant a prison term would carry a “high and increased risk of endangering his life”.

While bone marrow cancers have been linked to exposure to factors such as radiation or toxic chemicals, most patients – Mr David Ong included – do not have any obvious risk factors.

“I would say the majority of blood cancers are random occurrences,” said haematologist William Hwang, describing them as “no-fault diseases”.

“It’s just one of those things that happen.”

Grief and anxiety

When Mr Ong was diagnosed, the average life expectancy of multiple myeloma patients was four years, even with treatment.

Confronted with his own mortality, Mr Ong recalled that he began experiencing a “deep sense of grief and anxiety about the future”, worrying about everything from his own health to his family’s finances.

“Even though I’m a pastor, I’m a man, and men do cry,” he said.

However, he persevered because of a desire to see his only child Joshua, then aged four, grow up and have his own children.

Mr Ong consulted Professor Hwang, a senior consultant at the department of haematology at Singapore General Hospital and the National Cancer Centre Singapore, who said he was inspired by Mr Ong’s dedication to wanting to survive his cancer.

“David had a very specific request, and that was to be able to see his son grow up and get married,” Prof Hwang said.

However, he noted that therapies available at the time made this a goal that was difficult to achieve.

“For that reason, we did an unusual treatment for multiple myeloma that had a little higher upfront risk, but could potentially lead to long-term survival of a decade or more,” he said.

This was allogenic stem cell transplant, where a patient receives blood stem cells transplanted from someone else.

However, the procedure had a higher risk of infections, as well as a higher risk of donor cells attacking the patient and causing complications, Prof Hwang said.

The more common autologous stem cell transplant, which uses a patient’s own cells, is considered safer, as there is less risk of the immune system rejecting the cells.

But it could be less effective, as the patient’s cells are less able to fight cancer cells than a donor’s stem cells.

Still, Mr Ong decided to go ahead with the donor transplant.

The second youngest of seven children, Mr Ong said his siblings came forward to donate, and two of his sisters turned out to be matches for the transplant.

The treatment ahead of the transplant was no walk in the park.

Mr Ong left his job as a pastor to focus on the treatment. He had to go through two rounds of chemotherapy and full-body radiation treatment, which caused him to lose his hair and vomit regularly.

Even though the transplant, which took place in June 2005, was successful, he experienced acute graft-versus-host disease, where transplanted cells begin attacking the patient’s body.

He began experiencing ulcers in his mouth and throat, as well as pain across his body.

“The pain was really unbearably excruciating, to the point where I really didn’t want to go through the treatment any more,” he said.

He was prescribed morphine to ease the pain, but the situation only became worse when he began experiencing withdrawal symptoms after the morphine was stopped.

What gave him strength during this time was his family, and friends who would visit and pray with the family for his recovery.

“Even my son had to hold my hand, (saying), ‘Daddy, I will pray for you,’” he said.

For several years after the transplant, Mr Ong had a weakened immune system, and he suffered from pneumonia and other infections as a result.

Still, the treatment worked, and the cancer went into remission in 2008, though Mr Ong remained in recovery for several more years.

He wrote about his experience with battling cancer in two books – Talking The Walk, published in 2008, and Battling Myeloma, published in 2022.

After multiple myeloma

Following his initial diagnosis, Mr Ong took almost a decade off from full-time work to focus on his recovery, as well as on spending time with his son and his wife Whee Ling.

He said he missed the pastoral elements of the work.

“It’s about giving to other people – you know, caring for people as a shepherd, in the true sense of the word,” he said.

He has managed to fulfil his goal of seeing his son grow up. While the younger man, now aged 24, has not yet married or had children, he recently graduated with a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and now towers above his father at 1.82m.

Mr Ong returned to work in 2014, serving as a pastor at Petra Church in Armenian Street, but left in 2020 to set up his own ministry, ministering to the sick and providing mentoring for young adults.

He was struck with another surprise in February 2025 when, during a regular check-up, he was diagnosed with Stage 1 prostate cancer – just a few days after his 93-year-old father died.

Though he was concerned, his earlier experience prepared him for a second bout with cancer, he said, noting that it equipped him with the skills to cope with the diagnosis.

“There are people who are suffering worse than I am. (Remembering) this helped me not just to cope, but also learn to go beyond my own pain,” he said.

It is not uncommon now to find patients with both multiple myeloma and prostate cancer, as both cancers typically affect older men, said Prof Hwang.

“In the past, many multiple myeloma patients didn’t survive long enough to develop prostate cancer,” he noted.

While the disease remains incurable, remission rates for multiple myeloma have risen over the years to more than 90 per cent as treatments improved.

Prof Hwang said that while at the hospital for his treatments, Mr Ong would often talk to other patients, as well as staff, to encourage them when they were down.

“I find that patients like him, who are not so much wallowing in grief and sorrow, but who focus on having a positive goal and a positive outlook... they tend to do well,” the haematologist said.

Mr Ong said one thing he learnt from his experience with cancer was that he could still find purpose in life, even as health challenges meant adjusting his goals and expectations.

“In these almost 22 years of my journey with myeloma, I realised that I don’t need to lose the joy of living,” he said.