Almost two decades ago, CCF Chairperson Mr Ho Cheng Huat began his volunteer journey with CCF - on the streets of Orchard Road.
Together with a team of senior volunteers, Cheng Huat went to Wheelock Place on Saturdays to recruit potential befrienders - volunteers who provide support and friendship to children confined at home due to cancer treatment.
“I had to stop total strangers and ask, would you like to be a volunteer?” says Cheng Huat, recalling the many people who turned him down. But some of them listened and responded with “Hey, why not,” reinforcing his convictions to volunteer, and maybe even change some lives.
“Up to that point, I was happy-go-lucky and without major responsibilities. But at a certain age I came to realise that life is not just about receiving,” he says.
Besides recruiting volunteers, Mr Ho also tutored a young boy for two years, teaching him English, Math and Science and preparing him for the Primary School Leaving Examination.
For Cheng Huat, volunteering with CCF was like “connecting to a larger pool of people who are family.” They are a family he cannot imagine living without, one that has supported him through various portfolios he had held in CCF’s Management Committee including serving as Secretary and Vice-Chairman before assuming the role of Chairman in 2014.
“When an organisation grows, its services either have to improve or expand,” says Cheng Huat. Moving ahead, he looks forward to CCF supporting patients beyond their teenage years, as they grow into young adults. “Sometimes, when children undergo cancer treatment, they miss out on contact time with their peers during their formative years,” he explains.
“A child who is normal wants to be special, but all a CCF child wants is to be normal,” says Cheng Huat. This was a simple wish by some CCF children, told to him by a social worker.