A fighter till the end: Man who survived acid attack as a baby dies of cancer at 26

Few had expected Mr Samuel Lim Hong Xiang to survive after his grandmother's domestic helper poured acid down his throat when he was just three months old.

- Joyce Lim

But Mr Lim defied every medical prognosis and lived on.

Despite severe damage to his vocal cords and tongue, Mr Lim graduated with a master's degree in pathology from the University of Melbourne and, earlier in 2025, fulfilled his dream of becoming a speech and language therapist at Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities.

But in June, barely five months into the job, Mr Lim was diagnosed with nose cancer. He died on June 28 at the age of 26.

Mr Lim leaves his parents, Mr Lim Boon Keong and Madam Tan Poh Ling, both in their early 50s, a 20-year-old sister and a 23-year-old brother.

"We were told he had stage 4 cancer," Mr Lim's father told The Straits Times.

"But in his final week, he looked fine. He said he didn't feel any pain. He wanted to live."

Madam Tan said that despite the diagnosis, Mr Lim remained hopeful. He had received his first chemotherapy treatment three days before his death and had expressed his hope to return to work.

Mr Lim's first interview with the media appeared in The Sunday Times on Oct 21, 2012, when he was 13 and known as the boy who survived a horrific acid attack in June 1999.

Mr Lim's parents, who are now in their family business, were working as engineers back then and had left Mr Lim in his grandmother's flat.

His parents' helper Latifah was in the kitchen, while Mr Lim, who was then three months old, was asleep in the living room.

The grandmother's helper Sumiyem, then 17, took the opportunity to pour sulphuric acid into Mr Lim's mouth, as she was jealous of Ms Latifah and wanted to get her into trouble. Ms Sumiyem was later jailed for eight years.