KUALA LUMPUR: All she needed was just four more days. In that short time-frame, Maizulina Zulkeply could have personally accepted her Master’s Degree scroll.
Unfortunately, it was with a heavy heart that her father, Zulkeply Harun, 60, was the one who accepted the parchment.
Maizulina was diagnosed with leukaemia just last month after completing her Masters in Communication.
“We noticed that she started losing a lot of hair and she was looking very pale. We only found out the cause in September and our daughter started going for treatment.
“All this while, she seemed so energetic. Even during Raya, she was eating normally and happily spending time with her siblings as usual.
“But on Oct 18, at 1.25am, she left us. I was holding her in my arms when she passed away,” said the teary-eyed Zulkeply when met by reporters at Universiti Putra Malaysia’s (UPM) 40th Convocation.
The convocation was officiated by the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah.
In his speech, the Sultan expressed his happiness with UPM for its achievement, which is currently ranked as the 270th best university in the world, based on the QS World University Ranking 2016.