SINGAPORE: The daughter of Singapore's founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Dr Lee Wei Ling, 69, has died after a four-year battle with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare and debilitating brain disease.
According to the Straits Times, her brother, Lee Hsien Yang, shared the news of her death in a Facebook post early today.
She was also the sister of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who also shared a tribute to her in a Facebook post.
Dr Lee was a respected neurologist and served as the director of the National Neuroscience Institute from 2004 to 2014.
She was diagnosed with the disease in 2020, which affects movement, balance, and other vital functions.
Despite her condition, she faced her diagnosis with remarkable stoicism, reflecting on her journey in her writings.
Born in 1955, Dr Lee was the only daughter among three children in one of Singapore's most prominent families.
Her father became Singapore's founding Prime Minister when she was just four years old.
She was known for her academic excellence, earning a President's Scholarship and becoming one of the youngest Singaporeans to achieve a black belt in karate in 1970.
She pursued a career in medicine, specialising in pediatric neurology, particularly epilepsy, and developed strong, lasting relationships with her patients.
In his post, Hsien Loong highlighted Dr Lee's loyalty and compassion, noting her significant role in caring for their ageing parents. He also shared memories of her childhood and her determination to help those in need.
"She supervised our mother's care after her strokes. She took care of my father too, who was himself growing older and frailer even as he looked after our mother, and especially after she died in 2010.
"She was also the doctor in the family, whom we would always consult when a medical problem arose, big or small. When I had lymphoma, she took a close interest in my treatment and progress.
"One day at our weekly family lunch at Oxley Road, one of her nephews came with a tummy ache. She did a quick examination, suspected appendicitis, and sent him to be properly examined. She turned out to be right.
Hsien Loong said his sister's personality and character remained unchanged throughout her life.
"She was fiercely loyal to friends, sympathised instinctively with the underdog, and would mobilise actively to do something when she saw unfairness, or suspected wrongdoing. She was a fighter," he added.
He said his sister was diagnosed with PSP, a disease similar to but worse than Parkinson's, in 2020.
"Being a neurologist, she had in fact diagnosed herself before the doctors formally did. She took it with her usual fortitude and stoicism and posted about it as one of those things in life to be borne and endured.
"She knew what it meant, and made the most of the time she had even as her health declined. Now she has left us. I will deeply miss Ling. May she rest in peace."