I came here in 1981. When I first came here, I lived in Forest Gate, and later moved to Stratford. I was what people call “A bride from another town” [过埠新娘]. In 1981, my daughter was born. Because we thought living in the takeaway shop with a small child can be quite problematic, we applied for Council housing and our application was successful. We moved in a flat in Romford Road, Stratford.

My husband was running a takeaway shop so I used to help out in the kitchen. I worked there for a year or so until when I gave birth to my daughter. However, when giving birth to our second child, an incident happened and I almost died from labour at the hospital.

We didn’t know how to lodge a complaint. And three years later when my husband had an operation at a hospital he died eight hours after it. There were signs of negligence on the hospital’s part and our lawyers sued the hospital for damages on my behalf. However having lost my husband in a rather tragic way I became emotionally and mentally unstable. I received treatments for my problems and needed support from the Chinatown Chinese Community Centre to stay afloat with life. Staff there gave me a lot of help, advising me on welfare benefit and so on. And, as time passed, I was slowly able to get back on my feet again.

I was grateful to the help I received during the dark hours of my life, so I decided to do something to help those in need of support. I joined the volunteer team at the community centre and later I worked as a receptionist there for about seven years. There I learned a lot of things that I had not known previously. I continued to learn, to update my knowledge. I got to know many new friends. Later I was even involved in helping to set up the Newham Chinese Association.

When I first came to the UK, I didn’t have a single friend, now I meet people every week. I’m taking part in the Sunday Cantonese Opera group and Wednesday Tai-Chi Class. Life is full of activities for me. I’ve got two lovely children. Both have a Master’s Degree. My daughter works for an international company and lives in San Francisco. My son works for a bank, which specializes in financial investment and insurance.