Lin Oi-chu knows what it means to have seen the harder side of life. She comes from a poor background, having grown up with two sisters and three brothers in a wooden hut in Shau Kei Wan. Her late father was a hawker of noodles and fish balls.
Ms Lin, 49, feels the fact that she has experienced hardship, as well as a more comfortable life later on, helped her operate better as chief executive of the Hong Kong Aids Foundation. But her communication skills and experience in understanding people also comes from her previous job as a psychiatric nursing officer for the government.
'My first full-time job was a student nurse. I joined the field in 1982 and trained as a psychiatric nurse. At that time I didn't have a comprehensive idea of what I wanted to be,' said Ms Lin.
'I came from a poor background - so this job provided me with post-school training, a salary and living quarters. All three things were very important to me. I worked in a mental hospital and then in 1993 was promoted to nursing officer in the psychiatric field.'
Working at Queen Mary Hospital, Ms Lin set up a psycho-social liaison service, working with cancer-stricken children. The young patients were often angry and filled with hatred because of their situation. Ms Lin recalls being asked to look after a young boy who had behavioural problems, suffered from a terminal disease and was also infected with HIV because of a contaminated blood transfusion.
'After two weeks I began to successfully communicate with him and I learned more about HIV. Later, I was invited to work in the HIV/Aids field at the Castle Peak Hospital,' she said.