A high school student from Tien Giang Province has not let the most dreaded of all diseases, cancer, thwart his plans for higher studies.
In fact 19-year-old Pham Duy Tung insisted on going home from the hospital to attend his high school examination despite knowing his health condition and its implications.
His cancer has steadily progressed. He has been hospitatised several times at the Cho Ray Hospital for radiation. Doctors in the hospital have said Tung has bone cancer and will have to have his leg cut off.
The boy passed the high school examination easily. Immediately after, he made clear his desire to sit for the university entrance examinations. He had undergone a particularly intense round of radiation therapy, but he was not to be put off.
"I have studied for 12 years to sit for this examination," Tung told Le Thi Tam, his mother, insisting that she lets him sit for the examination right away when she suggested that he wait until the next year.
Now studying at the HCM City Economy University, the undaunted young man still hopes that his legs will be saved by some new medical advance.
The cancer was first found when Tung was in the second semester of the 12th grade. The sharp pains he felt were caused by trauma suffered from playing sport, he thought, but it turned out to be far more deadly, devastating the family. Tung s parents are former soldiers who regrouped to the south during the war.
The freshman student never cries. If he does, his mother will become sad, he says. Still refusing to give up, Tung looks at the future with hope. "I will help people in the same situation because I know the pain that cancer patients suffer."
Rich yield at Miss Viet Nam
In what is likely the first time in the nation s history, a daughter emulated her mother in winning the annual beauty contest held in the northern-western province of Son La.
In the fifth year of the contest held in the province s Moc Chau Town on October 14 and 15, there was no scandal as the winner beat other 59 contestants.
Her beauty drew spontaneous sighs of admiration and applause and the winner was soon a bygone conclusion.
In order to win the candidates had to have a nice filled out figure, beautiful udders and yield high quality milk.
The proud owner of this year s bovine beauty contest was Pham Van Tao, a farmer at the Moc Chau Farm.
Her mother won the contest two years ago. To prepare for this year s pageant, Tao worked with the daughter for four months to ensure she was at her best for the contest.
She was.
Tran Cong Chien, organiser of the contest, said that it would encourage dairy farmers to apply new techniques of breeding. He said some of the cows can give as much as 50kg of milk every day.
Chien said the number of milch cows in Moc Chau Farm will increase to 20,000 this year, and that the farm will also try to attract more tourists, offering them the chance to life like a farmer and take care of the beauties, including milking them. VNS