Anthony Yeo was a Singaporean counsellor, hailed as Singapore's "father of counselling" for his pioneering role in the profession's development in Singapore. Yeo attended

Victoria School Victoria School (VS) is a government autonomous boys' secondary school in Siglap, Singapore. Established in 1876, it is Singapore's second oldest state secondary school. It offers a six-year Integrated Programme, which allows students to skip t ...

and graduated from the

University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

in 1972. He later founded and served as clinical director of the Counselling and Care Centre, Singapore's first counselling centre; he also helped to establish a suicide prevention agency,

Samaritans of Singapore Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) is a non denominational, non-profit suicide prevention centre. Since its establishment in 1969, SOS has developed into a professionally run and managed organisation. It adopts a holistic approach to suicide, focuss ...

(SOS). Yeo was a regular contributor to

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was established ...

'', including as an

advice columnist An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response. The responses are wr ...

. He admitted that at one point of his life, he flunked his exams so regularly that he was dropped from three primary schools, and even failed his O-levels twice. He later found his life path of giving and passion for helping others that empowered him for the rest of his life. He died on 20 June 2009, of

Burkitt's lymphoma Burkitt lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphatic system, particularly B lymphocytes found in the germinal center. It is named after Denis Parsons Burkitt, the Irish surgeon who first described the disease in 1958 while working in equatorial Africa. ...

, after he collapsed at home on the evening of 9 May. On 21 November 2009, a special posthumous recognition award was given to Yeo by the

National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

(NVPC). The award, nominated by Christine Wong, executive director of Samaritans of Singapore, honoured Yeo's lifetime of voluntarism since 1972, serving in various positions in the social work fraternity and eventually as the first Asian director of the non-profit Counselling and Care Centre.

Selected bibliography

* ''Counselling: A Problem-Solving Approach'' * ''Living with Stress'', which was also published in a

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

edition. * ''If Tomorrow Never Comes''

References

Year of birth missing 2009 deaths Singaporean people of Teochew descent Singaporean social workers Victoria School, Singapore alumni National University of Singapore alumni {{singapore-bio-stub