"Thank you for assisting in raising the surgery fee so that I can be free of pain. I'm hoping to be able to work again after the surgery. I can cook, so I'll take up the spatula once more. Thank you for your assistance."

Cheng Boon Hooi, 61, is currently undergoing surgery. If the surgery goes well, he will be discharged from the hospital after a day of rest and will return home to rest. As he watched his friends pass away from heart disease without any surgery, his desire to live grew stronger.

The fundraising campaign will end now that the RM20,000 surgery fee has been raised, and he is also grateful to the public for allowing him to undergo coronary angiography and coronary artery stent in time.

When Boon Hooi was younger, he worked as a chef in Singapore before returning to Penang to work as a fisherman. He was unable to continue working at sea due to heart problems. He went to work as an assistant at a pastry stall in a market, earning a meager living. He planning to resume his career as a chef.