Woon Hon Win, 35-years-old
“If you can live with it, you can live through it.”
Ten years ago, I was bursting at the seams with hopes and dreams. I had just graduated from university and secured a spot in the prestigious Goldman Sachs, London branch. I was ready to take on the working world and decided to celebrate this milestone skiing among the amazing winter landscape. But the celebration was cut short as I got into an accident on the slopes, and I was whisked to Geneva for an emergency lifesaving brain surgery. I survived the misadventure but I was left paralysed and unconscious for eight months, and was diagnosed with traumatic brain surgery.
Eventually, I came into consciousness but still, the severity of my brain injury meant that I needed round the clock help. I had to be fed through a tube to my stomach, cleaned and moved. In a snap of a finger, I lost my health, mobility, career, relationship and dream of becoming successful. I cried every day. It was the darkest and lowest moment of my life.
Today, I am able to do almost everything with little help. I am able to walk, talk, eat because even though it was tough at first, I stuck it out through my rehabilitation therapy. It helped too that the team I had doubled up as my cheering squad. While I may not be able to do most of the thrill-seeking adventures I used to seek for, I’m still able to move my body and work at a company that makes me happy and fulfilled. When I look back at my journey to recovery, I realised that before my accident, I used to think that being rich was the most important thing in life to achieve. But the accident opened my eyes to a new perspective and now, being healthy and mobile is what I set my sights on. As you can imagine, the impact of this accident has played quite a big role in my life. I have turned what I thought would be a dark period into a part of my life that I have accepted. I accept my disability.
When I started working as a freelancer, that gave me hope. And eventually, I secured a full time job. This was really a big moment for me. After being rejected many times, I took one last chance and participated in a job fair for differently abled people.
Now that I’m working though, I have to pause all of my therapy sessions. I still go for one or two of them every week but most of them have been postponed or cancelled.
I did not come to this thought process alone, though. When I reached many points where I just wanted to give up, my mom was always there to cheer me on. “Don’t say ‘cannot’. Always say ‘can’”, are her permanent scripts to me.
I think family is the most important component in anybody’s life. If you have a good family, you will do well in life. No matter what happens to you.
And, find the strength to accept that sometimes, life takes a turn for what may seem like the worse. But if you can live with it, you can live through it.
To find out more about the rehabilitation team in Hon Win’s story, visit
