Zi Zhu Ren Zhu -- “If you help yourself, someone will help you.”

Wednesday November 16, 2005


A ‘celebrity’ at 14, she is now fighting for a normal life

By XANDRIA OOI

A celebrity at 14, she is now fighting for a normal life

AT a glance, 30-year old Poesy Liang looks to be at the peak of her life and career. In reality the extraordinarily talented interior designer is in pain. She has Intradural Thoracic Meningioma, a tumour steadily growing in her spinal cord.Sad is her story, especially for a girl whose life began to soar when she was only 14 years old.

Chosen to be the Levi’s 501 Girl as she began her teenage years, Poesy propelled to greater heights as a television commercial talent, singer, professional MC, VJ for the RIM Chart Show on NTV7 and writer. Her credits did not end there.


Poesy practising her calligraphy, a skill she picked up when she was still a child.
She went on to become a motivational speaker for a multi-level marketing company, a marketing manager, futures trader, then completed her diploma in architecture, did an MBA degree, studied law, and finally set up her own interior design practice.

Then, her health got in the way.

Poesy’s symptoms began to show when, fresh out of Bukit Bintang Girl’s School and into the first year of studying for a diploma in architecture, her legs began to buckle under her. She was only 17 years old.

“I used to take the bus to school, and I found it difficult to stand,” said Poesy. “When I walk, my legs would not move with the rest of the body.

“I would fall without any warning,” she said.