Sim Young-soon Recalls Recovery From Pancreatic Cancer After Being Given Three Months to Live

Cooking researcher Sim Young-soon, 86, says she was told her pancreatic cancer had disappeared about a year after doctors gave her three months to live. In an upcoming appearance on tvN’s You Quiz on the Block, she will recount how her second daughter’s devoted nursing and her family’s love sustained her through the illness and changed her feelings about life.

A preview released at the end of the show’s broadcast on the 14th featured Sim recalling that the cancer was discovered during a health check. Medical staff told her she had only three months to live, but she remembered accepting the prospect of death calmly, thinking, “I’m grateful. A cancer that will let me die so quickly.”

Her second daughter prepared food and stayed beside her to help her recover. Sim previously discussed that care on Channel A’s Close Friends Talkumentary: Table for Four in January of the previous year. She said her daughter moved into her home to look after her and cooked vegetable soup for all three meals each day.

The effect of those meals and daily nursing on her recovery cannot be established from her account. Her recollections do, however, describe a family enduring the illness together. About a year later, Sim said, she received an assessment that all the cancer had disappeared.

Her outlook changed after the ordeal. Having initially accepted death, she recalled thinking, “Ah, now I really don’t want to die.”

Sim also expressed affection for her daughters and gratitude for the love she received. “Show me a woman who is loved as much as I am,” she said. Three of her four daughters have followed her into work as cooking researchers, continuing the culinary tradition she has spent decades preserving and sharing.

Born in 1940, Sim has devoted about 50 years to researching and teaching traditional Korean cuisine. Appearances on the cooking competition Korean Food Battle and the variety show Boss in the Mirror made her a familiar television figure, known for her cooking expertise and strict philosophy about food. Her upcoming appearance will focus on her personal experience at the boundary between life and death.

Her less frequent television appearances recently have prompted concerns about her health. She appeared healthy in the preview and will speak directly about her past illness, although specific details about her reported cure and current health remain to be confirmed through the broadcast.

The episode of You Quiz on the Block featuring Sim will air on the 21st at 8:45 p.m. Music critic Lim Jin-mo, actor Kang So-ra and basketball player Lee Hyun-jung are also scheduled to appear.

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