20-Year-Old Medical Student Would Rather Survive On Leftovers Than To Burden His Parents
The student told Uncle Kentang that he only receives RM100 a month for living expenses.
How far would you go to save money and avoid burdening those supporting you?
With only RM100 a month for living expenses, a 20-year-old student resorted to eating customers' leftovers in restaurants in order to get by.
The student's extreme actions to save money came to light when local politician and philanthropist Kuan Chee Heng, who is popularly known as Uncle Kentang, was informed of the student's plight.
In a Facebook post, Uncle Kentang shared that he received word that there was a student who was regularly seen waiting outside fast food restaurants at 9pm to see if any tables had leftovers.
According to some restaurant staff, he would sometimes resort to gnawing at chicken bones if leftovers were scarce.
Some staff would take pity on him and would provide him with whatever leftovers the restaurant had that day.
Image via Sin Chew Daily News
Taking pity on the student's situation, Uncle Kentang decided to meet up with the young man and help him in any way he could
Meeting up with the 20-year-old, who chose to remain anonymous, for a meal in Paradigm Mall, Uncle Kentang learnt that he was a second-year medical student at a private university and was an excellent academic, scoring 11As in his SPM exam.
The student went on to explain that his medical course was expensive, amounting to RM270,000 in tuition fees. He also said that the RM250,000 Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional (PTPTN) scholarship he earned was not enough to be of significant help.
He also said that his father was a part-time worker and his mother was a housewife in Melaka. To add to their financial struggles, the student has an elder brother who is currently undergoing an engineering course at a local university.
Due to the lack of income and expensive tuition fees, the student said that he didn't want to ask for more money and rather eat leftovers than to burden his parents.
Image via 马铃薯叔叔日志 Uncle Kentang (Facebook)
Upon hearing the student's plights, many Malaysians were more than willing to financially contribute to help the student
Image via Facebook
However, there were a fair share of netizens who were skeptical as to why the student did not seek part-time employment to earn money.
Others also questioned why the student would opt to study at an expensive private university when he could have easily obtained a scholarship elsewhere with his excellent SPM results.
Image via Facebook
You can read Uncle Kentang's full post below:
It doesn't take a whole lot to help someone in a significant way, as these wonderful Malaysians will prove to you:
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