It wasn't the first time that I was asked to appear on a live television talk show. The last time was about 2 years ago when I was still at the University. It was always at Angkasapuri, and almost always in Malay - I did do a radio interview in English before. So, when I was approached to appear on a show in English, I just jumped at the chance. And this time it was at ntv7, in a women late morning talk show, appropriately called Bella Confidential.
Despite the target audience and gender slant, the subject matter should appeal to everyone. It was concerning the option of stem cell transplant as treatment in lymphoma and leukaemia, my bread and butter subject.
The talk started off by introducing a couple of patients - one had seen me previously - both treated at Hospital Ampang. They unfortunately suffered a relapse after their initial treatment and were currently being prepared for transplant, but in one of the lady's case, she had yet to find a suitable donor. The patient did very well in sharing their experience, and I couldn't help but feel that even without the segments with the doctors, the audience would have caught the geez of the discussion.
Waiting before going on air
Group photo - a lady from KPJ, Scha, Vanessa, Alia, Kim Yen and myselfI was there with a colleague from Ampang Puteri, Kim Yen. She was my predecessor at UMMC, and we took turn in discussing the subject from the medical point of view. Although it only lasted about 10 minutes, I thought we managed to get the key points across to the audience. The pacing was OK, and the moderator allowed ample opportunity for us to maneuver the discussion. I was pretty pleased with it in the end. I remember my discussion at RTM being cut short before when the program had to show a live feed - about a Minister officiating some event in town. At the end of that, I just wondered why they invited me in the first place.
Here, things were more laid back. There were no set script, and as a result, the discussion flowed freely.
And another highlight of the morning was actually meeting Ramli Ibrahim, the famed Odissi dancer. He was bigger in person, very personable, and he was there to promote an even coming on in the next few weeks. He offered me some tickets for the events, but I was more interested in talking to him about other things. Fascinating guy.
