When her mother passed away despite putting up a brave fight against colon cancer, Ms Lee Soh Hong realized that there was very little information on cancer easily accessible by the public in Singapore.
Driven by a passion to propagate her mother's courage and caring spirit towards other cancer patients, this accountant by training turned her grief into positive energy and started CancerStory.com in September 2000.
Since then, this self-funded, non-profit one-stop online cancer reference centre has evolved to become a rich resource of information on cancer, its possible treatments and real-life accounts of how other families cope with the disease.
Along the way, the website and its founder have picked up quite a few awards and accolades including the Asian Internet Awards 2001 - BOL Readers' Choice Award and the Reader's Digest Inspiring Heroes Awards - Inspiring Singaporean Award. It has also received strong support from the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre.
But perhaps of greatest satisfaction to its founder is to see the site actually helping numerous cancer patients by being a source of useful information and a pillar of emotional support.
The website founder strongly advocates adoption of what she calls 'comprehensive cancer care' to complement medical treatments. This includes practicing of qigong, yoga and reiki, improvements in diets and attitude and family support. Though this position diverges from the scientific approach, Soh Hong's end objective - to help cancer patients survive - is the same as a cancer scientist.
"CancerStory began with a sad story, the death of my mother. It was her wish to see a medical breakthrough, a discovery of a cure for cancer," said Soh Hong. "My family and I are trying our best to provide online help to cancer patients and their families until the arrival of this day. When it happens, no tears need to be shed from cancer anymore. CancerStory shall end with a beautiful story."
MISS Lee Soh Hong withdrew $45,000 from her savings to set
up a non-profit cancer support centre in November
2002.
It all came to naught when the centre at East Point Mall in
Simei, called Humanity & Golden Kids, closed down after
just one year.
The former accounts manager, 41, who had quit her job to
run the centre, said she failed because she could not generate
enough publicity for her cause or secure corporate
funding.
Comparing the fight for a slice of the charity pie to a
fight for survival, she said: 'It's as if all the big
non-profit organisations are the top-most leaves of a plant,
getting all the sunlight and good things, while the smaller
leaves below, small non-profit organisations like mine,
struggle and wait for opportunities.'
Although some charities in the big league raise staggering
sums of money from the public, there are many among the 1,700
registered charities in Singapore that struggle to make do
with the few donations they get.
Some, like Humanity & Golden Kids, close down - 10 quit
the scene last year and 14 the year before.
The Inland
Revenue Authority of Singapore, which administers all
registered charities in Singapore, said those that closed down
last year comprised six religious groups and four welfare or
educational groups. Most had been around for more than 10
years.
Mr Gerard Ee, president of the National Council
of Social Service (NCSS), an umbrella body for welfare
organisations here, said: 'There will always be charities of
different sizes that struggle at different periods of
time.'
He said competition for funds had heated up with the number
of non-profit organisations ballooning from 400 in 1983 to
more than 1,700 now.
'Those struggling don't articulate their causes well or
don't have clearly defined objectives,' he
added.
However, non-profit organisations said the issues they have
to grapple with are not having avenues to tell potential
donors what they do, not knowing how to run fund-raising
campaigns, and not having the right
connections.
For instance, a member of a non-profit organisation, who
declined to be named, said a fund-raising event involving
well-known personalities will raise more money than any flag
day.
In the case of The Tent, a welfare home for troubled
teenage girls, it is doubtful if it would have raised more
than $2 million last year without the help of Senior Minister
Lee Kuan Yew's daughter, Associate Professor Lee Wei Ling, who
offered some of her family's possessions for an
auction.
She knew about the home because one of her colleagues
helped out there.
Added Ms Lee Soak Mun, 30, an accountant heading an effort
to raise $100,000 for the Dover Park Hospice and the Singapore
After-Care Association: 'It is difficult for us as we are not
offering goodie bags, houses or condominiums to donors. The
only attraction is our cause.'
She will lead a group of volunteers, called the Raleigh
Society, on a 100km walk in June to raise
funds.
Some non-profit organisations have resorted to hiring
private companies, which charge a fee, to do the fund-raising
for them.
The Association of Fundraisers, which was formed in May
last year, and the NCSS also provide training in fund-raising
to non-profit organisations.
Even without training, some small charities have found ways
to stay afloat.
The Breadline Group, a group of volunteers formed in 1975,
gives $50 to $300 a month to nearly 200 needy families. They
manage to raise $250,000 every year, mostly through
fund-raising events such as auctions organised by expatriate
women.
Their selling point?
They point out to donors that 99 per cent of what they
raise goes to the poor families.
HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?
Does the NKF have enough money? Would you still donate to
it, knowing it has $189 million in reserves? Call
1800-8282828 or e-mail mailto:%20stlocal@sph.com.sg
with your views.
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ACCA member's initiative leads to opening of new holistic care centre for cancer patients
Our member, Lee Soh Hong, honoured upon receiving the Reader's Digest Inspiring Singaporean award and Reader's Digest Everyday Hero, has once again stepped forward to fill the gap in providing complementary cancer methods to cancer patients through a non-profit centre called Humanity & Golden Kids.
In some medical institutions in western countries such as United States and United Kingdom, conventional and complementary cancer treatments have been delivered under one roof. However, complementary cancer methods have not been endorsed by the local cancer institutions/centers. Soh Hong is geared to face an uphill task in advocating safe complementary cancer methods to our local patients. Many of these therapies have been shown to help relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life by lessening the side effects of conventional treatments and providing psychological and physical benefits to the patients.
She founded CancerStory.com in September 2000 in loving memory of her late mother who died of colon cancer in September 1999. CancerStory.com, a non-profit and self-funded web site has helped many local and overseas web surfers in the battle against cancer.
"I feel sorry for cancer patients and their families, forking out large sums to buy the elusive magic bullet that claims to cure cancer. Cancer patients desperate for a cure are vulnerable to extravagant claims and marketing strategies that claim to promise cures."
In response to feedback and requests, she decided to complement the virtual presence of her website with a brick and mortar resource centre called Humanity & Golden Kids. The Centre offers practical assistance and information to help patients and their families, and to educate them to be more careful in their choice of treatment. It also provides safe and beneficial complementary cancer methods. The cost of setting up this non-profit Centre was co-funded by Soh Hong and the National Volunteer Centre through its Volunteer Initiative Grant.
For Soh Hong, her mother's death marked a beginning, not an end. She has devoted her time and effort and used her hard-earned money to help people living with cancer.
"My initiative when setting up CancerStory was to continue my late mother's spirit of caring and sharing. My mother believed that it is a blessing to be able to give and help others."
It is this spirit of caring and sharing that earns the recognition from the Ministry of Education. A write-up on CancerStory.com, commending Soh Hong's altruism was featured in the Secondary One Higher Chinese textbook.
"Many seemingly impossible tasks can be easily accomplished through our compassion and sincerity if only we can create a strong bond among fellowmen. Therefore I hope to encourage all like-minded individuals to join hands in support of volunteerism and humanity, by employing two Chinese characters, namely "tong ren", meaning "bringing people together for a common mission")."
With generous support from Singapore's well-known artist-philosopher and a recipient of the World Economic Forum's Crystal Award Mr Tan Swie Hian, "tong ren", executed in Chinese calligraphy, is displayed at the Centre.
"I hope that members of ACCA can also come forward to give me a helping hand in one way or another to support the mission of Humanity & Golden Kids. "
The Centre also offers yoga lessons to members of the public, in order generate revenue to defray its operating costs.
AFTER Ms Lee Soh Hong pumped $60,000 into setting up a cancer
support website three years ago, she found that virtual help alone
was not enough.
So the 40-year-old former accounts manager, who had quit her job
to work on the website, set aside another $45,000 last year to
set up and maintain a cancer support centre.
Called Humanity and Golden Kids, the centre, the size of a
one-room flat, sits next to a food court on the fifth floor of East
Point Mall in Simei.
'Some people don't have a computer, don't surf the Internet, or
don't read English. I was getting requests to set up a physical
centre,' said Ms Lee.
Sparsely furnished with books and a mat for therapy sessions, she
set it up with help from insurance company NTUC Income and a
volunteer initiative grant from the National Volunteer
Centre.
It opened in March.
Ms Lee decided to devote herself to helping cancer patients when
her 66-year-old mother lost her life to colon cancer in 1999 after a
battle lasting more than three years.
Madam Goh Kim Kat, a housewife, remained jolly to the end and
often sympathised with other cancer patients, especially
children.
When she died, Ms Lee was too depressed to continue working. She
took a website design course which sparked cancerstory.com.
'I wanted to continue her spirit of caring and sharing. It's my
tribute to my mother,' she said.
For her work on the website, she won two awards from Reader's
Digest magazine: an Inspiring Heroes Award for the category of
Inspiring Singaporean in November 2001, and an Everyday Heroes Award
in March last year.
She advocates traditional Chinese medicine and complementary
cancer therapies such as qigong, shiatsu, reiki and yoga. The
therapy is customised for cancer patients.
'We are filling a gap in advocating complementary treatment,'
said Ms Lee.
At the non-profit centre, all revenue generated goes towards
defraying the centre's running costs. But few walk through its doors
as those who go know of it only by word-of-mouth or through her
public talks.
Since Sars struck, the numbers have slipped further as East Point
Mall is next to a hospital, Changi General. But Ms Lee hopes more
cancer patients will come on board when her centre is more well
established.
'Now I have to be more careful in making ends meet, by leading a
simple life,' she said. 'But it's not a sacrifice, it's a
choice.'
Retiree Alvin Choo, 52, who had nose cancer in 1995 and a relapse
last year, is grateful for Ms Lee's choice.
Since reading cancerstory.com, he has tried reiki therapy and
finds it helps him sleep better. He also claims that acupuncture has
relieved a pain in his back which started after his tumour removal
operation in February last year.
'Through the website I was exposed to all sorts of therapies I
wouldn't have known of,' he said.
Agreeing, Ms Joanna Chan, 44, a housewife who had an ovarian
tumour removed in May 2001, said: 'I don't know if these therapies
work, but it helps me to feel that I'm in control. I am doing
something to prevent the cancer from recurring.'
She feels more energetic after taking up qigong.
And, as well as attending a yoga class at Humanity and Golden
Kids, she intends to try reiki.
Said Ms Chan: 'It's good that Singapore has such a centre where
patients can go and not feel out of place.'
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Lee Soh Hong waited nervously at the Singapore General Hospital with her brothers and sisters. The 39-year-old accountant's mother had been diagnosed with colon cancer, and now, in January 1996, they were waiting to hear how far it had progressed.
"The tests show that the cancer is in the third stage," the doctor said flatly after he entered the waiting room. Lee's voice cracked as she asked about her mother's prognosis. "She has six to 12 months left," the doctor replied. Lee broke down in tears - her mother, Goh Kim Kat, was the foundation of their family.
Lee quit her job to care full-time for her mother, but struggled to understand how best to help. While the doctors worked hard to fight her mother's cancer, they offered little information about the disease and possible options for treatment. Lee tried the Internet but could find no single website that catered to cancer patients and caregivers in Singapore or elsewhere in Asia.
After surviving much longer than expected, Lee's mother passed away quietly on September 30, 1999, at the age of 66. To try to take her mind off her grief, Lee enrolled in a graduate e-commerce course at the Marketing Institute of Singapore. In March 2000, she decided to create a cancer support website to pay tribute to her mother and to help people like herself desperate to learn more about cancer.
"Information is so valuable to cancer patients, but it can be difficult and confusing to find on the Internet," Lee says. "What I learned about my mother's struggle is that you have to be proactive and take charge of your care."
Enlisting the technical expertise of her brother, Chin Peng, an information technology consultant, she used nearly US$35,000 of her savings to start the site. CancerStory.com was launched on September 18, 2000, one year after her mother's death based on the lunar calendar.
The site allows cancer patients and their caregivers to find basic information, research treatments, communicate with each other and read inspirational stories from cancer survivors. As well, visitors can post questions, which are answered by experts in Singapore and overseas.
CancerStory.com quickly became a hit. It has received about 33,000 visits from around the world, and has over 350 registered users from as far afield as France and South Africa.
CancerStory also has over 100 volunteers who help with fundraising.
Lee won praise from people struggling to come to terms with cancer. "This is a fantastic website," Singapore resident Nora Ng wrote in the site's guestbook. "It will definitely help many people to cope. I'm a cancer survivor and can understand the pain every cancer patient has to go through."
Adds Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who was successfully treated for lymphoma. "Talking about [cancer] helps you to unburden yourself of worries and fears, and allows others to let you know that you are not alone and help is available. CancerStory.com is doing a good job helping Singaporeans to overcome this psychological obstacle."
Says Lee, who still works several hours a day on CancerStory.com while doing freelance accounting work to support herself : "If the site can help people understand and cope with cancer, it is a fitting tribute to my mother." Written by Floyd Whaley
When mum lost her battle with colon cancer, Soh Hong plunged into grief. But she snapped out of the pain in six months and turned it into strength.
The result: CancerStory.com, a helpsite for cancer patients and their families. The former accountant set it up in memory of her mother Madam Goh Kim Kat, who battled the disease for over three years.
Soh Hong, one of seven children, quit her full-time job to spend time with her mother after the illness was diagnosed. "If people can quit jobs to stay home for their kids, why not for the parents?"
And the years at home were not wasted. Soh Hong researched cancer cures and she shares much of what she learnt on the site, which won notable mention from the likes of Reader's Digest as well as on the Asian Internet Awards last year.
Call it a project of passion, Soh Hong pumped in $80,000 of her own money and roped in her brother and nieces to help. Today, she gets some help with grants from the National Volunteer Centre.
Soh Hong also freelances as a system consultant and helps raise funds for charities.
Sold by her passion, one doctor congratulated her, "This site is not an infatuation, but a love that needs to be preserved." And no doubt, she'll be doing that, in her mum's memory.
SHE gave up a secure career and spent $60,000 of her savings to
help cancer patients.
Ms Lee Soh Hong, 39, quit her job as an accounts manager in
September last year to work on her non-profit website,
Cancerstory.com, which provides information and support for
cancer patients.
For that, she was honoured with the Reader's Digest Inspiring
Heroes Award for the category of Inspiring Singaporean.
At an award ceremony held on Tuesday at the Raffles Hotel, where
Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang was the guest of honour, Ms Lee, who
is a certified accountant, downplayed her achievements.
She said: 'All I wanted to do was to spread the spirit of giving.
'I created the website as a tribute to my mother, who, even when
crippled by the illness, gave comfort and encouragement to other
cancer patients.'
Her mother, Madam Goh Kim Kat, lost a four-year battle to colon
cancer in 1999. She was 66.
Ms Lee wanted something constructive to come out of her grief.
'I decided to learn the HTML computer language and created this
website,' said the fourth and only single sibling in a family of
seven.
In just over a year, she spent $60,000 to set up the website and
run it.
This year, Cancerstory.com received a special grant from the
National Volunteer Centre, and also began to run NTUC Income
advertisements, both of which Ms Lee is grateful for.
'In these uncertain times, I'm lucky to have their support. I
hope it'll help me tide over the recession before I go back into the
workforce full-time,' she said.
The Reader's Digest Inspiring Heroes Awards programme was mooted
in April this year to honour individuals who go beyond the call of
duty in their contributions to society.
The other winners honoured were Inspiring Teacher Anthony Tang,
29, and Inspiring Youths Jasmine Yap, 18, and Jasper Ong, 21.
Mr Tang received a cheque for $1,000 while Ms Yap and Ms Ong got
$500 each.
Ms Lee, who received a certificate and a trophy, now gets by on
freelance accounting jobs.
She said with a smile and a wave: 'It's okay. I'm single, I live
a simple life and I do not own a
car.'
Woman
sets up cancer website to commemorate mother's
death
Four
Singaporeans have been singled out as Reader's Digest's
Inspiring Heroes.
Among
them is a 39-year-old accounts manager who gave up her
S$100,000-a-year job to set up a website for cancer patients
and their caregivers.
Lee Soh Hong is thrilled with
the award and the success of CancerStory.com, which she launched last
year.
But behind the website, is her own sad story.
Her 66-year-old mother lost the battle to colon cancer
in 1999, and to keep the memories of her alive, Soh Hong left
her full-time job and spent S$60,000 of her own savings to
start the website.
She said, "We're now trying to
reach out to more cancer patients living in Asia because we
believe that the sharing of cancer experiences for people
living with cancer is most beneficial and most motivational...
"CancerStory.com will provide online support to people
living with cancer and their families."
It has not
been easy maintaining the website as most companies are
reluctant to fund the project.
Thus Soh Hong has had
to take on freelance consulting projects to keep her website
going.
She is currently running a fund raiser for the
Children's Cancer Foundation, and may start a full-time job
soon.
Media Division, Ministry of Information and The Arts,
MITA Building, 140 Hill Street, 2nd Storey, Singapore 179369
Tel: 837-9666
SPEECH BY MR LIM HNG KIANG MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SECOND
MINISTER FOR FINANCE AT THE READER'S DIGEST INSPIRING HEROES AWARDS ON TUESDAY,
13 NOVEMBER 2001 AT 1520 HRS AT THE RAFFLES HOTEL
Introduction
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am very pleased to join you this afternoon to recognise the
Reader抯 Digest Inspiring Heroes Award recipients. This Award was launched by
Reader抯 Digest in April this year. It is dedicated to the discovery of
extraordinary Singaporeans, who have made a difference helping others and are an
inspiration to other Singaporeans.
Ms Lee Soh Hong is the proud recipient of the Reader抯 Digest
Inspiring Singaporean award. She is the founder of cancerstory.com, a
non-profit website created in honour of her mother who battled cancer. It抯
primary objective is to help other cancer patients and caregivers by providing
information and support.
Ms Lee gave up her accounts manager job to look after her
mother during her illness. After her mother抯 passing, she started the website
and has since committed full time to developing, maintaining and promoting the
site. She gave up a steady income for this cause, and has since spent $60,000 of
her own money to start up and maintain the site.
Also an active volunteer, she encourages the spirit of
volunteerism through the net by encouraging visitors to her site to sign up as
Cancer Story volunteers and blood donors. Close to a hundred volunteers have
since registered. Together with her volunteers, they helped in fund-raising
activities for the Singapore Cancer Society and other institutions in the
community. They have raised funds for Dover Park Hospice, as well as Assisi Home
and Hospice.
There is a Chinese saying, that heroes are made from adversity.
In the wake of the Sep 11 attack, and the current economic downturn, the
discovery of inspiring local heroes helps uplift our morale and reinforce our
faith in the human spirit.
We have many inspiring examples. When we ran the TV programme
"Extraordinary People" some years ago, Singaporeans were touched and inspired.
What captured the imagination of Singaporeans was not the money or resources
deployed, but the commitment by individuals in the community who were willing to
volunteer their time and effort to help others without expecting anything in
return.
As emphasised by our Prime Minister at this year抯 National Day
Rally, and I quote, "to feel passionately about Singapore is to care about more
than just those things that directly affect our families, our friends, and
ourselves. It is to be strongly committed to the well-being of our fellow
Singaporeans, and to show compassion to those who are weaker than
ourselves."
As we build up a core of Singaporeans who feel passionately
about Singapore in this way, they would inspire others and Singapore would be
the stronger and better place for this. Reader's Digest Inspiring Heroes Award
contributes to this process.
Let me now turn to the other recipients.
Our two inspiring youth recipients, Ms Jasmine Yap and Ms
Jasper Ong, are recognised today for their commitment to community work. While
Jasmine is currently driving a special school project which looks into voice
recognition software to boost the morale and learning process of the handicapped
students, Jasper helps out regularly at the Singapore Leprosy Relief Association
(SILRA) and Tampines Home. Their volunteerism has also reached as far as
Cambodia and Thailand.
Encouraging our youths and exposing them to volunteerism will
not only help them gain a good perspective in life, but also equip them with
good life skills. This is especially important as we face an ageing population
and our young will have to play a proactive role to help others.
"He has made a difference ever since he came to the school. He
is a role model not only to students but to teachers as well." This is how
another teacher described Mr. Anthony Tang, our inspiring teacher award
recipient. Mr Tang has always put his students� safety and welfare above him,
and is always going the extra mile for his students.
Together with Ms. Lee Soh Hong, these heroes have proven
themselves to be active participants of the new social compact proposed for
Singapore by our Prime Minister, "to help those less able than ourselves".
As we brace ourselves for the tough challenges ahead, this
great display of generous spirit and commitment to help others is exactly what
we need. And by recognising these heroes, we hope to inspire and encourage more
Singaporeans to step forward and make a difference.
APRIL 7, 2004
WED
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