SHE wanted to give up her fight against cancer after suffering a relapse in 2004.

But a near-death experience changed Miss Renganathan Balasaraswathi's attitude towards life.

Not only did she continue battling cancer, she went back to school the following year while holding down a full-time job.

She enrolled in SIM University (UniSIM), which was then known as the SIM Open University Centre, to pursue a diploma in mathematics.

Miss Bala, as she prefers to be known, said: 'I decided to go back to school because I needed to move on.

'It's also for 'survival' as having A-level qualifications alone aren't enough.'

But it was not easy. The former finance assistant worked from 8am to 5.30pm, Mondays to Fridays. Two to three days a week, she attended classes after work at 7.30pm.

She wore a baseball cap to class as she had lost all her hair due to chemotherapy.

Miss Bala, who was diagnosed in 2003 with B-cell lymphoma, was also going for cancer treatment twice a week.

Her older sister helped carry her schoolbag to class as it was too heavy for the patient, who was left feeling 'very weak' by her treatment.

Miss Bala, now 39 and a statistics assistant, said: 'Sometimes, I couldn't attend class if I had to be in the hospital the whole day for blood transfusions or CT scans.

'At times, it was difficult to write due to the pain from having needles inserted in my hand during treatment.'

But she said her classmates were always more than willing to lend her their notes.

She said: 'The lecturers also told me to approach them if I didn't understand anything. Some gave me extra lessons and told me to e-mail them if I had any questions.'

In 2006, her cancer went into remission and she obtained her diploma. 'I felt very happy then because I'd achieved something in my life,' she said.

Miss Bala's diploma exempted her from the first year of the Bachelor of Science in Mathematics programme.

She said she found the Financial Mathematics course the most useful.

'I didn't know how the banks did the calculations for bonds and so on, but now I do,' she said, her eyes lighting up. 'And I can even predict what'll happen when interest rates go down.'

But Miss Bala said she enjoyed all the courses, even the one on linear statistic modelling.

She said: 'It was the hardest topic for me, but I enjoyed it because it is very unique and it taught me how to calculate and analyse data.

'I also found it interesting because one of the examples we did was finding out what percentage of a population has a disease, like cancer.'

HER DREAM

Miss Bala earned her degree in two years, and did well enough to be invited to do her honours.

She plans to enrol in the National Institute of Education upon her graduation. She said: 'It's always been my dream to be a mathematics teacher.

'Whatever I've learnt, I want to be able to pass on to the younger generation.'

Miss Bala said that before she started working full-time, she used to tutor primary and secondary school students to earn pocket money.

She said: 'My students would improve after I taught them. I'd be so happy when they came back to thank me.'

But Miss Bala said she could not have completed her studies without all the help she has received over the years.

She said since 2006, she has received a $1,000 annual study award from UniSIM.

From 2006 to 2009, she received a total of $16,000 from the Lee Foundation, a sum which covered half her school fees.

While she was undergoing cancer treatment, her colleagues from the Singapore Prison Service visited her in hospital. They also passed the hat around and collected $10,000 towards her medical bills.

And when she was struggling to keep up with her studies, she went to a tuition agency to hire a tutor.

But the tutor refused any payment upon learning of her student's background.

Miss Bala's eyes welled up with tears as she listed the family members, colleagues, classmates, lecturers and strangers who have helped her in one way or another.

'During my difficult times, they really pulled me up,' she said.

This article was first published in The New Paper.