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Polly Cheung - Founder, Hong Kong Breast Cancer Foundation

Distinguished specialist in breast and thyroid surgery Polly Cheung Suk-yee has not only saved countless lives for more than 30 years, she has also pioneered treatments and therapies for breast cancer patients, bringing about a fundamental change in attitudes to what was once considered a Western disease.

'Some women still believe suffering from cancer is a curse in Chinese society, so we need to help them open up to share their emotional feelings and fear,' she says.

In 2005, Cheung founded the Hong Kong Breast Cancer Foundation to help patients make informed decisions and meet women facing the same situation.

'As a doctor, sometimes we can only help cure them physically, but sharing their experience with others in the same predicament helps cure the inside, which is important for their long-term recovery,' she says.

She has been blessed to have the support of her family in her career, including during the mid-1980s, when she took up a one-year endocrine fellowship at the University of Michigan's department of surgery, leaving her husband and two-year-old son behind. 'I was encouraged to remain in the United States, but my family was in Hong Kong and my position as academic surgeon at the University of Hong Kong could not be held. So I came back, where I have practised ever since.'

Among her many accomplishments was setting up the first breast-screening programme in Hong Kong, offering mammography in 1990. The following year, she opened her own clinic only to encounter difficulties in forging a multidisciplinary approach to patient care. 'I had to lobby for regular meetings with fellow medical professionals where we would bring all our case information and share the results with our patients. I'm happy it's now a practice norm,' she says.

Another achievement was the establishment of the Breast Cancer Foundation's information registry, which helps track a disease affecting more than 3,000 women a year. The survival rate for breast cancer patients was about 13 per cent some 100 years ago; today it is 80 per cent. The foundation is doing more fund-raising and information-sharing events this month, as part of International Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

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