For survivors of serious illness, a second battle begins at the workplace after treatment ends

Eight weeks after a mastectomy and breast reconstruction for stage 0 breast cancer, Ms Patricia Malay was eager to get back to work, but she had not anticipated how quickly fatigue would set in.

"I couldn't stack meetings, one after the other, the way I used to," said the 46-year-old general manager at Bud Communications, an international public relations agency, who underwent the surgery in December 2025.