 He transferred to work in Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu) and was later promoted to District Officer and he moved to Kalimantan.Choy was raised by a Kadazan nanny and acquired Kadazan as her first language.She became an Anglican at St Monica's Boarding School in Sandakan, where she adopted the name "Elizabeth", and went on to pursue higher education in Raffles College (now the National University of Singapore) in Singapore.