Those of you who have followed and loved Vanilla when it was alive, will remember the winner of our Singapore Woman Award (hey Pam you are right - it may not be us anymore this year but hey, it's still a great idea worth supporting).
Molly Lee was a beautiful, gentle young woman who was a cancer sufferer. When her husband Josef Lee first emailed me to feature her, I was blown away a) by the portfolio he sent of his wife and her blog and what she had done via WeAreWonderWomen.Com. b) by Josef's deep love for Molly, which even as I write this, touches me deeply.
Molly beat over 40 other nominees to be unanimously selected by the panel of judges (Laura Hwang, Prof Ivy Ng of KKH, Saw Phaik Hwa of SMRT, and Alan Nementchik from Guardian) as the winner.
Molly passed away on 29 May 2008, two months after she won the Award.
Josef and I had been in touch since - he wanted to do something to keep alive Molly's passion for other young women cancer sufferers. We discussed a few project ideas but it all came back to the fact that we needed to create a Fund, and ideally, name it after Molly.
A week after I left MediaCorp (no Vanilla, no Theresa, haha) I emailed Laura and Ivy - and I tell you, these two women are super, ultra, mega amazing and they will be my heroes forever. Immediately they expressed their support for a fund, and Yvette Thomasz from KKH's corporate comms, met up with me and Ong Soh Chin (my former boss and a big supporter of Molly too).
Almost instantly Yvette said, "We can name it after Molly!"
So I am very proud and happy to announce that there is now The Molly Lee Appeal, in aid of the KK Hospital Endowment Fund. This Appeal is specifically for women aged 18-50 who suffer from women's cancers. We are currently discussing if this Appeal should also cover HIV/Aids sufferers who are women.
I am now planning our first fundraising event for the Appeal, together with my good friend Edwin Ho, a super talented photographer based in New York. Edwin has recently lost two female friends to cancer too, and this is a cause that is so close to both our hearts.
Stay tuned for news of our photo exhibition/auction fundraiser!
4 comments:
that's wonderful news! it's uncanny that molly won the singapore women award just before she passed away... at least her story got told. that's most impt. threez, let me know how i can help!
hullo everyone!!
i never met Molly but i do know Ivy, who's my husband's boss at KKH hahahahaha...
Swee Chong is possibly the only person in Singapore worth talking to about cervical cancer. when Jade Goody was dying of it, he looked glum and said it's one of the most awful, painful cancers to die from.
yet, every woman can increase her chance to prevent it, from a vaccine to being regular with Pap smears, all of which many women refuse to do, for whatever reasons.
i want to help with this fund, esp if we can reach out and help women who are either sufferers or want to prevent getting a certain cancer, but can't afford it (ie. getting the vaccine, which isn't that cheap, and the money they spend could go literally to groceries for 2 months for some).
i guess we're all at the point in our lives when we see that we can really do so much for others, and i want to grab this opportunity.
lemme know!!
Wow that's a good idea — let me talk to KKH about extending the fund for preventive and education purposes for cervical cancer.
it's funny how something termed a Fund or Trust can get more and faster responses. i was telling Sweech that he should talk to his Indonesian taitai patients, who come all the way from Jakarta JUST to see him, every other month (!!) to maybe give towards helping poorer women to get medical help they may not be able to afford.
i guess it's not easy for him to get them to sponsor some needy women for necessary check-ups or medication, but asking them to give to a fund should be easier, and more transparent.
let's see what we can do. not just for cervical cancer, but maybe Aids awareness, sexual health, and just wider knowledge.
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