The Story Of Two Girls Who Grew Up With The 'Wrong' Parents

Xin Ting realised her blood type was different from that of her family members’ during a health examination at school when she was 13. “My blood type is B while the rest of my family are O. I knew I was different, but I kept it to myself.

“My parents also brought me to a private lab for a blood test later but did not want to tell me the results. I think they knew it then.

Xin Ting only found out that she was not the biological daughter of her parents following a blood test.

“Two years ago, when I was reading a book on my blood type, my younger sister asked why my blood type was different. I told her I was not her biological sister,” she said. Her mother Yap Sau Kuen, 44, overheard the conversation and asked if she wanted to seek out her real parents.

Not for anything will she leave the couple who raised her – even the prospect of being with her real mother and father. “I have never thought of leaving my family. I just wanted to know who my real parents were and if they were living well,” she said.

The family then sought help from Kota Melaka MP Sim Tong Him, who ran numerous checks with the National Registration Department. They eventually traced Khai Sin’s family.

Wong Xin Ting and Fu Khai Sin were born at the same maternity home just six minutes apart in 1993, and were inadvertently switched.

They have since grown up some 40km away from each other in Tampin town and Pengkalan Balak here.

A meeting between the two families was arranged in December 2012. Yap has no regrets over the search. “I am really glad that I have another daughter now. Their happiness is all I ask for,” she said.

Khai Sin said she felt “strange” when her parents decided to tell her the truth after she had finished her LCCI examinations. “It was so sudden, and I found it hard to accept initially. I remember crying a lot,” she said.

As for Bong Choon Moi, 51, realising her daughter was not hers was not easy. “It was so hard to accept. I did not want to lose my daughter. “On the other hand, I also wanted to know if my biological daughter was well taken care of. So I reckoned that I had to reveal the truth to Khai Sin as she had the right to know.”

Bong said when she first saw Xin Ting’s picture, she knew the young woman was her daughter as they shared similar features. “I feel relieved that she has been loved and well taken care of, just like Khai Sin.”

Two girls were accidentally switched at birth – but it has turned out to be a happy story. They have found one another and they each have a pair of mothers and fathers now.

Both families have been meeting each other, and the girls now regard each other as special friends. They celebrated their 21st birthday recently at Khai Sin’s home in Tampin.

Bong’s husband, Fu Yew Hatt, 51, and Yap’s husband Wong Nyong Chin, also 51, are both happy over the unexpected extension of their families.

“Let’s just be happy for a bigger and merrier family now,” said Fu.