Sabrina, a person in our community that seems so cheerful, really uncovered so many experiences that one may never even imagine facing all in the span of a few years. She is a photographer and filmer for UWC EAST and has shared a truly incredible story. Cancer was a very dominant aspect of her family’s bloodline. From the age of 19, she had to drop out of her education in order to look after her younger brother who had been diagnosed with cancer, alongside many of her uncles that had passed away due to the illness. Because of this, she lived in constant fear of being diagnosed with the same medical issue. As she moved to Singapore and married a Pakistani man she was soon later on diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She went through chemotherapy and luckily was able to survive. But because of the medical treatment, had to put off on having children. After years of trying for a baby, she had multiple miscarriages and this drove her into a dark path and made her depressed. All the false pregnancy’s and miscarriages were something so hard to deal and because of this, she felt that she had hit rock bottom. But while she had almost given up with having a child, she miraculously got pregnant and became aware of this 8 weeks into her pregnancy. When the hospitals scanned the baby and had done checks, they soon received the news that the baby had been diagnosed with 3 diseases and there was a low chance of the baby surviving if she gave birth. But because of her rocky path in trying for a child, and making it this far, she clung onto every last bit of hope she had, to disregard the advice of the doctors to remove the child. Many scans came back, and with each, her hope seemed to be slipping away. But after giving birth to the child, they found that there had been a mistake in the scans and that the baby was perfectly healthy.  Through her emotional journey, I wanted to focus on what kept her going in times where most people would spiral down an emotional depression. She claims that her husband, and the Muslim religion that she follows, allowed her to be a spiritual person filled with hope. Her husband and aspects of her mindset developed from the religion she followed, allowed her to have the most important person in her life today. I wanted to focus on the impacts that religion can have on a person, and how hope and spirituality may save people from times of depression. How many people view the idealism religious people to have to be unrealistic, and damaging to peoples sense of reality, but sometimes it may be the one thing that can change their life. I formed new opinions on how religion can be a support system for people and sometimes is believed and followed by many because of how they are able to rely upon or look up to someone. This really stayed with me as I was baptized from a young age, but never considered myself religious, I was starting to see why so many people may turn to religion in a time of need.