With her sweet smile and convocation robe, one might be surprised to learn this 24-year-old had already undergone 15 sessions of chemotherapy and 22 rounds of radiotherapy.

“It wasn’t easy for me to accept this trial,” she admitted to FMT, sharing that she had been diagnosed with cancer when she was 19 – not long after receiving word that she had been accepted into IPG Tuanku Bainun Campus in Penang.

“The situation really stressed me out because I had just started my studies. Thankfully, I was given leave to complete my treatment at Kulim Hospital.”

Even more heartbreaking was that her illness was discovered just a year after she and her siblings had lost their beloved father to kidney failure in May 2020.

“When I first found out, I was alone in the ward and called my mother. I said, ‘Mum, don’t be shocked, I might have cancer.’ I heard her crying – and I cried, too.”

As the eldest child, Syahidatunnajwa carries her family’s hopes. Her illness, she said, nearly made her give up.

“I thought if I were gone, my mother would have one less burden. But my mother is someone who has great faith. She is my strength,” Syahidatunnajwa said.

Undergoing intensive treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy while studying is no easy feat. The Baling, Kedah native credits the help and compassion of those around her for helping her complete her education.

“I had to go to the hospital regularly for treatment, but the lecturers understood and never treated me as a burden,” she noted.

And although she had to postpone her studies to undergo treatment, Syahidatunnajwa never lost hope. After five years of effort, she has finally earned her degree.

“If God still allows me to breathe, I must continue this fight,” she said, expressing her desire to follow in her mother’s and late father’s footsteps in educating the next generation.