‘Have a bigger heart, Malaysians urged’
Social worker fighting cancer but still makes time to help others
JOHOR BARU: When social worker James Ho was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer 15 years ago, he had a wake-up call.
Realising that his years of social work might die along with him, he became consumed with the idea of setting up a charity welfare foundation.
“A foundation can ensure that help for the needy will continue,” he said in a recent interview.
Despite the doctor only giving him a survival rate of 3%, Ho had one of his lungs removed and soldiered through 32 rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
It took him about four years before Yayasan Kebajikan Suria Kawasan Permas Johor Baru was registered in 2012.
Today, his foundation helps 28 families each month and Ho has been awarded the Iskandar Malaysia Social Heroes Award under the poverty and hunger category. He was also recognised in 2015 for his disaster relief efforts.
Ho, 65, has been helping others since 1991 when he first raised RM42,000 for an ultrasound machine for pregnant women in Lahad Datu. Otherwise, it would have taken them eight hours of travelling on bumpy roads to reach the nearest hospital.
Since then, it has been his lifelong dedication to help those in need, including HIV/AIDS patients, the mentally ill, single mothers, orphans and cancer patients.
“I have a soft heart, especially for orphans as my mother was an orphan. It moved me to give my time and money to people who need my help, regardless of their race and creed,” he said, adding that he had taken on full-time social work since retiring as a plantation manager.
Ho, who is a trained counsellor, was also involved in advising the next-of-kin of passengers onboard MH370 as well as in relief efforts during the 2006 floods in Johor and in Kelantan recently, and the tsunami in Sumatra, Indonesia.
However, he has also faced criticism over the years.
“People scolded me for having nothing else better to do, for wasting my time and some even questioned my motives for helping those in need. I don’t let those comments affect me. It brings me joy to see those I have helped progress in life. And when I know that children, whom I have helped get adopted after they were born out of wedlock, have a good home,” he said.
Ho has handled many cases but his most memorable one has to be the time he convinced an HIVpositive single mother not to jump off a building in Johor Baru with her three sons after her husband passed away.
“I managed to coax her out of it and offered to put her boys through school and see to their needs. I am happy that since then, she has found her reason to live – her sons.”