Keenly inquisitive, ready for new challenges, ENT (ear, nose, and throat) specialist and head and neck surgeon Dr. Lau Chee
Chong has a fascinating and multi-faceted life that he manages with laughter and energy.
Dr Lau is certainly not your stereotypical doctor. A cool and incisive mind, steady hands, dedication and passion are
traits that have served him well in the operating theatre. They also serve him well in other aspects of his full and
interesting life. Dr Lau is one of Singapore’s most successful veteran (over-40) fencers, proudly donning the shooting
star colours of Singapore’s national team. “Fencing,” he shares, “is like operating – with a very long scalpel. It’s
hard to imagine another sport which can simultaneously challenge your mind, your body, your instincts and your training.
Everything needs to come together perfectly in a split second. It’s a fascinating and intense sport”. Dr Lau won an individual
bronze medal for sabre in the 2012 Commonwealth Veteran Fencing Championships and anchored the Singapore team to a bronze
finish in the team event. He was the 2012 Taipei Open Masters individual sabre champion. He makes time in his busy schedule
to train regularly, up to six times a week before a major competition.
Dr Lau is also a keen scuba diver, tennis player and shotgunshooter (game-shooting in Africa and crow-culling in Singapore).
Until he suffered a knee accident on the snow slopes, the family also enjoyed skiing trips. But fencing is his favourite.
In addition to its personal charms, it is a sport that allows him to do what he loves best - maximise his time with his
two daughters – Ysien, 15 and Ywen, 13.
Dr Lau started fencing eight years ago, when Ysien was first enrolled in little-kid fencing classes. “I thought I would
keep the girls company and maybe teach them a bit”, he says, “Fencing is a passion I can share with the girls and we
spend many happy hours training together, talking strategy and technique and travelling for overseas competitions and
training. It’s fabulous family time.”
Both girls earned their spots on the Singapore National Fencing Squad by the time each of them was 12 years old, making
them two of the youngest to ever make the team. Many weeks of school have been spent representing Singapore, travelling
all over the world to places like Slovakia, the Jersey Islands, Croatia, Hungary, Germany, France, Belgium, China, Australia
and throughout South-east Asia. Ysien recently fenced in the Asian Youth Games in Nanjing.
This has meant huge sacrifices and a gruelling training schedule for the girls, who strive to maintain both their excellent
school grades and “a social life.” On the plus side, fencing has given them discipline, focus, self-confidence and the
ability to perform under great pressure. “We are immensely proud of them,” Dr Lau says quietly, “They are really amazing
girls and wonderful human beings.”
Aside from the fencing trips, the Laus try to take time to travel and explore the world with their children. However,
the girls have reached the point that they just want to stay on home ground, after so much travelling for fencing. When
asked what she wanted for Christmas, Ysien replied “I really want a holiday… at home.” When the family does travel, it
is often a culinary journey, exploring interesting small towns and villages with interesting food. A recent trip took
them to a little fishing port in Japan, where local fishing boats hauled in giant Japanese spider crabs, while another
took them up and down the Amalfi coast, sampling the lemons and the limoncello!
True to his Cantonese roots, Dr Lau not only loves to eat, he also loves to cook. Specialising in family favourites
such as roast suckling pig, “the best chilli crab in Singapore” (according to wife Cynthia), home-made pasta, charcoal-seared
Japanese beef and perfectly steamed fish, many enjoyable hours are spent in the markets and the kitchen.
Besides sports and cooking, Dr. Lau has many other interests and hobbies, ranging from collecting unusual fish and birds
to designing his own pond filtration system and visiting nurseries for exotic plants. So how does he manage to find time
for it all? He attributes this to his wife Cynthia, to whom he has been married for 18 years: “She’s the real reason
why I have time to do the work that I love, the activities that interest me and still spend a lot of time with my wonderful
family. Without her, it would have been impossible to find the time. She does almost everything for me. She was a corporate
lawyer when we first met. Five days before our wedding, we decided that she should stop legal practice to spend more
time with me. She is a great wife and a great mother, very capable, charming and selfless; the girls and I always come
first for her. She’s amazing.”
Was maintaining work-life balance a conscious decision he made years ago? Dr Lau related a conversation that prompted
him to make that decision to lead a balanced life. “During my early years in Mount Elizabeth, I met a senior doctor who
gave me this piece of advice: ‘Don’t spend your whole life working. You must spend time for yourself and your family.
Experience as much of life as you can. Do things that you enjoy. Don’t wait until you “retire” to do what you want. It
might be too late.” He said that he had spent all his time working very hard and one day found out that he had cancer.
Then he tried to catch up on what really mattered, but he no longer had the time or the health to do so. He spent his
final years travelling around the world. I will always remember him.
"I feel that my greate st achievement is to have the knowledge and the skills to make a real difference to people’s lives.
“That conversation really made me stop and think. I’ve seen sick people who die regretting that they made lots of money,
but didn’t spend time with their families or making themselves happy. And I have friends with grown-up children, who
feel that they spent so much time working and preparing their retirement funds that they missed the whole growing up
process, a huge chunk of their children’s lives.”
Another reason why Dr Lau can enjoy a balanced lifestyle is that his specialty – ENT – is one of the surgical disciplines
where there tend to be fewer emergencies. He says, “Most of the cases are elective - I can schedule patients for surgery,
leaving time for myself and for my family.” The initial decision to specialise in this field was “because I think five
holes in the head is quite interesting,” he chuckles. From his early ENT days (working in London at the Great Ormond
Street Hospital for Children and the Royal National Throat Nose & Ear Hospital) and after 23 years of private practice
at Mount Elizabeth (Orchard), ENT is still his dream specialty. He walks in every day with a smile, thirsty for more.
Dr. Lau does extensive reading and also dedicates time to attend medical conferences to update himself. “I’m a student
for life,” he says. ENT is also a wonderful specialty for a man with an inquisitive intellect. “ENT is fascinating because
there are so many tremendous advancements being made in this field,” says Dr. Lau. “When I first joined ENT, I was about
25 and things were so different. The changes are so dramatic. Some of the surgical instruments that I first used are
now housed in a special cabinet for “medical antiques” in his clinic. Nowadays, much of the ENT surgery is done using
endoscopes. It’s very unusual now to make a cut in the face or under the lip as we used to do.
“We actually have an advantage over the other surgeons who use endoscopic surgery where they make only a few small holes
in the skin. Our holes are ready made; we already have two big nostrils, two ear canals and a mouth to work with! In
fact, in recent years, we have used these convenient holes to endoscopically access the base of the skull and through
the skull base, the brain.”
Endoscopic or minimallyinvasive skull base surgery may be done to remove both benign and cancerous growths, and abnormalities
on the underside of the brain, the skull base, or the top few vertebrae of the spinal column. Of course, when we reach
the skull base or the brain, we work together with a neurosurgical colleague.
Recent advancements have been made to improve the treatment and quality of life for patients with head and neck cancers.
Says Dr. Lau, “In the past, we had to do a lot of debilitating surgery on the larynx and the throat by splitting the
skin in the face and the neck. Nowadays, we can operate using the endoscope or microscope through the mouth to approach
deep into the oral cavity and larynx.
“There have been vast improvements in chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which are giving patients a better cure rate than
the chemotherapy and radiotherapy of the past. In increasingly more cases, we have been able to avoid all surgery together.
The new generation of chemotherapy and radiotherapy also have reduced side effects. The patient’s quality of life is
therefore much better.
“There are also a lot of new advancements in the area of ear implants for people with hearing loss, such as cochlear
implants and middle ear implants. This is an area of rapid advancement.”
Like the other aspects of his life, Dr Lau is dedicated and passionate about the welfare of his patients and his medical
practice. When asked what his greatest achievement in his career was, thus far, he paused for thought before relating
a recent incident. “I have a patient from Indonesia. Ten years ago she suffered from cancer of the larynx. She had radiotherapy
then and she was cured. About six months ago, she came back to see me again. She had a little swelling in her larynx.
She had a recurrent cancer and this time, she needed major surgery to remove the larynx. But the patient could not afford
the surgery.
“Without the surgery, she would succumb to the cancer very quickly. So I operated and I waived my charges. I also asked
the anaesthetist to reduce his charges, which he generously did. She’s recovering well.
“I feel that my greatest achievement is to have the knowledge and the skills to make a real difference to people’s lives,
the ability to offer them complete honesty, to save lives or just to make them feel a little better. These are moments
of real happiness for me. And if I am in a position where I can waive my charges or reduce them to help those who are
truly in need, then really, I’m the lucky one.” And he smiles.
"During my early years in Mount Elizabeth, I met a senior doctor who gave me this piece of advice: ‘Don’t spend your
whole life working. You must spend time for yourself and your family. Experience as much of life as you can. Do things
that you enjoy. Don’t wait until you “retire” to do what you want. It might be too late ."
Diagnosis and treatment of Allergies
Diagnosis and treatment of Ear and Hearing Disorders
Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)
Diagnosis and treatment of Sinus and Nasal Disorders
Screening, diagnosis and management of Cancers
Diagnosis and treatment of Throat Disorders
3 Mount Elizabeth, Suite 14-11 (14th Floor) Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre Singapore 228510
Clinic Phone | : | +65 6235 9535 |
Fax | : | +65 6738 4377 |
Operating Hours:
Monday to Friday | : | 9:00 am to 05:00 pm |
Saturday | : | 9:00 am to 01:00 pm |
Sunday & Public Holiday | : | Closed |