SINGAPORE – It was past 1am on Aug 4, 2025, when Ms Pham Quyen Tran helped a distressed mother comb through the transit area of Changi Airport Terminal 3 for over 45 minutes, to track down her disoriented teenage daughter.

Ms Pham, a sales executive at duty-free store Shilla Travel Retail, had earlier received an urgent call for help with a mother-and-daughter pair who looked overwhelmed at the food court. A colleague who was on a break in the area had called her.

Relief washed over the mother’s face when Ms Pham spoke to her in Vietnamese, leading her to share more about her daughter’s severe depression. At that point, her 17-year-old daughter was completely unresponsive and unable to stand upright.

Ms Pham helped them to buy food and brought the duo, who were on a lengthy 14-hour layover, to a quiet area to rest.

The grateful mother declined her offer to put the duo up at the airport hotel. But less than an hour later, the 29-year-old received another call from the same colleague when the daughter went missing.

She ran out of the store immediately, searching every toilet cubicle in the vicinity and alerting the airport police.

With the help of other ground staff, they located the daughter at one of the boarding gates – standing completely still and getting agitated whenever someone approached her. She even screamed when her mother tried to hug her.