Interview: Get to know local aesthetician and dog rescuer Dr Siew Tuck Wah

There are many odd combinations in this world that just seem to work – chocolate coated chips, peanut butter and jelly, and so on. Here’s another unusual mix that you won’t be able to wrap your head around at first: an aesthetician who also doubles as the President of a charity welfare organisation that rescues dogs!

Two years ago, Dr Siew made headlines when he left his five figure salary behind to spend his time solely on managing his charity welfare organisation, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD). In September last year, Dr Siew founded his own clinic, Radium Aesthetics Medical, with co-founder Andy Cheng, continuing in the line of work he had once left behind.

We spoke to the charismatic Dr Siew after his return from an SOSD event, and he shared his passions, insights and tips to support his welfare charity organisation.

MARIE FRANCE ASIA: Congratulations on the opening of Radium Medical Aesthetics. How did you first discover your passion for aesthetic medicine?

Dr Siew: I’ve always been interested in anti-ageing wellness and medicine and all that, but honestly, there’s a lot of stigma towards going into aesthetics, especially during my time. I started aesthetics a decade ago, and at that time there was a lot of stigma. People would rather do things like surgery, so even though I was interested I didn’t dare to venture out. But I had a friend who needed some help, so he asked me to join him part-time. From part-time, it then became full-time. That’s how it happened.

MFA: With the stigma you mentioned, do you find aesthetic medicine superficial?

D.S.: The skin part is one part of it. For a bigger picture, aesthetic medicine encompasses anti-ageing medicine and wellness, too. For me, I emphasise a lot on wellness. It’s not only the treatments themselves, it’s also about your lifestyle – eating well, living well… it’s more than just the skin part, there’s a whole complete wellness. You sometimes treat people’s mental state as well. It’s really a whole spectrum.

The reason people come to you, it’s because they think they don’t look good, and that affects their mood. When improving some parts of it, it makes them feel better. For example, it’s very strange, but people with dark eye circles, they’ll say that they always look tired, so they’ll feel tired. So when you treat that – put a bit of filler – then they’ll feel better, more refreshed. And it really affects their state. It’s a very common thing that I see.

The main thing is to make people feel happy. When I do a consultation, people will ask me “what do I need?”, I will always ask them back, “what do you think is bugging you?”. If you think you’re happy, then okay la [laughs].  They’ll ask me, “what do I need?”, and I’ll tell them scientifically, objectively, you need a, b, c, d, e, but really, you need to tell me what’s bugging you. If you think you’re happy this way, this is it, you don’t need anything.

MFA: Why did you return to the aesthetic medicine industry?

D.S.: I left aesthetic medicine in September 2015 and came back in September 2016. If you talk about the most immediate, primary reason, money was running out. It’s the harsh truth of life. I don’t come from a rich family. I just had to make a living. I decided to start Radium, rather than join someone else. I knew that I was at the point in my life where I couldn’t work for people anymore. If I do that, then I can’t run SOSD at the same time. By having my own practice, it’s much more flexible. I can go out in the middle of the day, do an event, and come back. I can give talks, I can also teach, I can do a lot more.

MFA: That must take up a lot of time.

D.S.: It’s crazy, I have no time at all. It’s a lot of work. I’m very lucky because with SOSD, I have a fantastic team of volunteers, including Andy, who deals with operations. I have department heads, so what I do is to oversee and run the PR and social media part of it. In that sense, every department runs autonomously, and at this stage, SOSD is pretty much independent, so that allows me to run it. For my clinic part, I have fantastic colleagues, and that helps me. But still, it is overwhelming.

MFA: How similar do you think your job and passion for saving street dogs are?

DS: Yeah, so they are different, and a lot of people cannot reconcile the fact that aesthetics and saving stray dogs can come together. But I have proven to people that it can be done. For Radium, for example, we have done a lot of fundraising, everything is tied into SOSD here, even our wall decor is artwork for sale from SOSD, and it’s to fundraise for SOSD. We all run by the same principles. Our principle is to alleviate suffering, to make people happy, to save lives. So it’s the same. Over [at Radium] I’m making people happy, which is my philosophy, and over at SOSD we’re saving lives and making the world a kinder place. We’re saving the dogs, giving them homes and making their families happy, making the dogs happy.

MFA: How do you handle the controversy that surrounds SOSD?

D.S.: There’s a lot of negativity in whatever you do. It can be aesthetics, it can be any industry. Even in charities, there will always be negativity. It’s very important to just stick to your principles, stick to your goal, and always stay positive, and never dwell on the negative. If people scold you, you just have to state your stand and explain why you do it, but never go down to the level of mud-slinging back at people. So that is something we are very clear on what we will not do. 

MFA: How did you find your passion for rescuing dogs?

DS: I grew up very poor, in a 3-room HDB flat. In that kind of estate, there’s really very few dogs. My parents are from Malaysia, so they always told us stories about how dogs will chase you, they will hurt you and they will bite you and all that. They themselves were scared of dogs, we never had money for dogs and never had interaction with dogs. So naturally, we grew up wary of dogs, we don’t even go near them when we see them.

MFA: So do you remember the first dog you rescued?

D.S.: [laughs] I’m trying to remember which were the very first ones. There were a few first rescues. My first bail out from AVA (Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority) was a black dog – that created a lot of media buzz, so that was very memorable. The most memorable one, of course, was my own dog, Bacon, because Bacon was rescued from Punggol. He was one of first rescues, and because at that time we had no shelter, he had to be sent to my place to be fostered. He stayed for maybe five days. At first we thought he might be aggressive, he was very scared and combative. But later on, we became really close in just a few days. So when he got adopted, he didn’t want to leave, he was very distressed when he went to his new house. So finally, the doctor called me on New Year’s Eve 2011, and he said “can you please bring your dog back, your dog is hurting himself”. So I brought him back, and then adopted him. He’s now on the SOSD logo.

MFA: What compelled you to rescue more and become more involved with SOSD?

D.S.: I started rescue in December 2011. What spurred me on was that there was a stray dog biting incident. A girl was jogging at the Punggol Park connector, and then these dogs attacked her. And at that time there was very little awareness on issue of stray dogs, so once that happened, the public went crazy, they called for blood, they wanted blood. So AVA went down and towed dogs all over the area. I don’t know what came over me but I think it was a higher calling, there was a higher calling for me to go down and rescue. So we rescued one, two, three, and that was in December. It was a very successful rescue operation. There was a lot of public support and all that, people started to realise there was such a problem. And in 2012, SOSD was already an existing organisation, but very informal. Then, they formally asked me to join them. So I joined them, and formalised them, and we registered. That’s how it all grew.

MFA: What are your goals this year for the annual fund-raising Mission Pawsible this year?

D.S.: So that’s our flag day on the 19th of March. Mission Pawsible is a theme which means that the dogs can do so much more, they can achieve the impossible. So they’re like superheroes. During this fund-raising, this flag day event, we’re portraying them as superheroes. We rescue them, but they give us so much more back, they do their part for us as well. So what we’re going to do is, we’re going to feature dogs that have given back to society, dogs whom we’ve rescued who were sick and dying, and now they’ve done their part. Either they’ve been on outreach programs, or they’ve helped other dogs. Our goal this year is to reach out to as many as possible. We hope to have at least 1000 flag collectors all over Singapore to collect funds, and our goal is $200,000 from the event.

MFA: How can people help or support your movement?

D.S.: Many, many ways. Of course, if you have the money, please help by donating to us. If you can volunteer, please do volunteer your time. SOSD needs volunteers of all ages, all genders, all everything, because we need expertise in many, many areas. Even in accounting, even doing book-keeping, all these things – we need volunteers to help with. We need people to adopt dogs, of course.  We need people to foster – the dogs we rescue need temporary homes sometimes. Importantly, we need you to tell people about our cause. So we always say: if you cannot do any of these, the easiest thing you can do is like the Facebook page and share the stories. Sharing, for us, is very, very helpful.

If you are interested in learning more about rescuing street dogs, visit sosd.org.sg. Dr Siew’s practice, Radium Medical Aesthetics, is located at 3 Temasek Boulevard, #03-326, Suntec City Mall, Singapore 038983.