“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

Dedication

This biography is for the women who rise quietly and steadily, and the men who make room for them. It is about the life of Dr. Sandy Gregory. It is for the girl who learned early that love can be complicated yet real, the student who trusted her teachers more than the noise of the world, and the professional who kept moving forward even when the ground shook beneath her.

It is for her family: her parents who raised her, her siblings who stood with her from the start, and the people who were present when she made difficult choices. It is for every patient whose pain taught her to be kind, every coworker who pushed her to excel and brought out her courage, and every resident who looked to her for safety and order.

Most importantly, it is dedicated to the women and children who were previously marginalized: the single mother counting coins, the daughter struggling to secure a seat in a classroom due to lack of paperwork, and the young individual who mistakenly believed that silence was a sign of weakness. May they find not only inspiration in these pages but also a reflection of their own unbroken strength.

“Out of difficulties grow miracles.”

Phase 1: Roots of Resilience

We don’t learn how to be strong in a storm; we learn it at home. Dr. Sandirani Sandy Gregory’s house was full of normal activities like carefully preparing meals, siblings working out chores, the little fights that made afternoons go by faster, and the surprising alliances that formed after arguments. However, beneath these rhythms lay a secret that awaited discovery. When Dr. Sandy was sixteen, most teens were comparing themselves to mirrors or what their friends thought of them. But Dr. Sandy had a different revelation: the man she had always called “father” was actually her stepfather. The word hit like a document with a red stamp on it: formal, cold, and unexpected. But it didn’t erase the memories of love, safety, and daily acts of duty. She then made a clear choice that showed how mature she would become: she would call him father, not because they were related by blood but because she loved him. That choice made her heart remember that the truth must be honoured, but goodness must not be broken in the process.

Her childhood was a mix of different cultures. Growing up in Malaysia meant dealing with different parts of your identity: Tamil at home, Malay on the streets, and English in school. Every language had its own way of looking at the world, and Dr. Sandirani Sandy Gregory was interested in all of them. She discovered that words could create bridges or walls, and she preferred the former. That early exposure made her aware of differences and gave her the ability to listen deeply, which later helped her mediate conflicts in communities and workplaces.

School became a safe place for her where her teachers saw her spark and helped it grow. They weren’t just teachers; they were the people who built her confidence. Her first language of strength was sports. To run the 300 metres, you needed more than speed; you needed a plan and a conversation between your lungs that were burning and your legs that wanted to keep going. She learnt how to push through the pain and find a memory in her body that was stronger than tiredness. She learnt how to work together, how to coordinate her movements, and how to plan ahead by playing netball and badminton. 

“The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.”

Phase 2 : The Young Healer

Clinics and hospitals are strange places. They are made for emergencies, but their goal is to make things calm. Dr. Sandy Gregory learnt her second big lesson in these places: how to stay calm in the middle of chaos. She steadied herself when others flinched. Some people only saw blood and noise, but she started to see systems: patients, tools, routines, and most importantly, people.

Young Dr. Sandy had already shown that she could come back after being scared. It wasn’t the end when she fainted on the first day; it was the beginning. She learnt how to deal with the unpredictable rhythm of general practice with the help of Dr. Dharma Ratnam. His methods were blunt and sometimes cruel, but they taught her discipline. He didn’t spare her from being corrected, and she didn’t expect comfort when she needed to be precise. She started to anticipate his orders, getting tools before he asked, writing down the medications he liked, and memorising procedures until they became second nature. The things she used to be scared of saying became signs of her growth. Each stern word, though hard to hear, made her feel more responsible.

She was never limited to one part of the clinic. She learnt how to care for people in close proximity, like dressing wounds, sterilising equipment, and holding the shaking hand of a patient waiting for an injection. On the other hand, she was occupied with managing the clinic, which included keeping track of stock, updating registers, and ensuring its smooth operation. She learnt to speak two languages at once: the language of care and the language of control. Not many people knew that these languages worked well together. To heal a body, you needed supplies. To keep track of supplies, you needed to think ahead. Dr. Sandy was both of those things.

Seventeen years in the clinic taught me more than any school could. Every day, she saw how weak and strong people are. She witnessed how pain removed social facades: a wealthy man lamenting like a child, a proud mother weeping upon her child’s fever subsiding, and a family offering whispered prayers of gratitude upon hearing, “she is stable now.” These scenes made her realise that illnesses make everyone the same. Pain doesn’t care who you are, and neither should compassion.

“Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck; your profession is what you’re put here on earth to do.”

Phase 3 : Lessons in Medicine

Some jobs teach you about the world. Dr. Sandy Gregory learnt about people and the systems that protect them through medicine. The years spent in the clinic were not a prologue to another life. They were like a crucible. She came in as a teenager who wouldn’t look away from problems, and she left with a way of life that she would carry with her everywhere: competence as kindness, procedure as protection, and prevention as service.

Competence looks normal from the outside: finding a vein quickly, laying out a tray in the right order, and noticing an expiration date in time. These are acts of mercy from inside the urgent room. Dr. Sandy got seven days of intense training after fainting on the first day and deciding to go back. She learnt about registrations, medication names and dosages, sterile technique, dressings, wound care, and how to act in an emergency. She learnt how to turn a reprimand into a refinement under Dr. Dharma Ratnam, who was strict, old, and not afraid to correct. She soon knew what people needed: sutures ready before they were asked for, syringes ready with the right gauge, and tools lined up so that a hand could find them without having to look. She learnt that calm is made up of small things that are done over and over until they become second nature.

Dr. Sandy’s days were divided between the closeness of care and the machinery of continuity. In an hour, she would clean a wound without causing pain, steady a shaky hand for an injection, and breathe in a way that someone else could follow. In the next hour, she would check the petty cash, make sure the stock levels were correct, call suppliers and file end-of-day reports so that the next day could start on time. A lot of people think that compassion and control are two different things. She treated them like they were her own kids. The cleaner the ledger, the nicer the room, because patients could get more energy instead of fighting.

She met a doctor who ran six clinics and a factory clinic at a bus stop, and that changed her life. With her parents’ permission, she joined the network and learnt about scale: how workflows change when one room becomes seven, how standard checklists keep people from making mistakes, and how procurement plans for changes. 

Note of Thanks

We want to thank everyone who has been with Dr. Sandirani Sandy Gregory at every step of the way on this trip from the bottom of heart. We thank her family for believing in my dreams and being patient with her. She is grateful to her mentors and coworkers for trusting her and helping her find her purpose, and to the communities that let her serve. They have all helped her become the person she is today. Every meeting, problem, and talk has been a quiet teacher. May this work pay gratitude to all those who inspired it and remind us that being thankful is the strongest thing we can do for our souls.

Thank You
– Dr. Sandirani Sandy Gregory