14 June 2026“When I was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of skin cancer (Mycosis Fungoides, Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma) – what doctors said was a one-in-a-million case – my first instinct was to quit my job. I even drafted my resignation letter.
The year was 2011. I’d just crossed my second year at the bank as a branch Customer Service Officer and returned to work from maternity leave after giving birth to my third child.
I felt “paiseh” staying on, knowing I would need regular medical leave for treatment, especially after having been away for months.
But when I broke the news to my manager, she rejected my resignation.
“Who’d support you if you resign?” She asked, as she started drafting a note to HR to see what could be done.
The very next day, I met with HR and was placed on illness leave, with my treatment –including radiotherapy and chemotherapy – covered under the company insurance.
The years that followed were the hardest. At one point, the treatment left such a severe wound on my leg that I couldn’t walk and had to use a wheelchair.
During that time, my late brother was also diagnosed with a late-stage lung cancer. He told me that the way I stayed positive through my own fight gave him strength in his.
That cemented my resolve to keep going for the people around me, especially since I’ve received heaps of support from my family and community at work.
When I returned to work, I was still on crutches. My team moved me into a back-end role so I could sit and recover more comfortably. They often checked in on how I was doing physically and emotionally.
Today, I’m still in remission. It’s my 16th year at the bank, and my seventh year in the community outreach team.
My work now takes me to schools, where we teach children and youths the basics of financial literacy – saving, spending and using cashless tools like Smart Buddy and PayLah! Responsibly.
We’ve been stepping up efforts around PayLah! for Teens, especially as students transition from Smart Buddy.
A lot of what we do is hands-on – board games, interactive sessions – because children learn best when it feels like play.
I often test our materials with my five children (yes, I had two more!), aged 5 to 21. What they understand, what confuses them, what excites them – it all helps me to think about how to make our programmes better.
I love knowing that the work I do makes an impact on raising the financial literacy of children and teens.
Life may not always go the way we planned – I am fighting cancer and faced many challenges in life, but yet I wake up every day and choose to keep going for everyone around me, especially my teammates, who have been a constant source of support and strength.”
— Norjana Samsudin, Community Development and Partnership, DBS
#HumansofDBS
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