Celebrating the spirit of a city
The Post's Celebrating Hong Kong initiative turned its attention to 11 ordinary people who make an extraordinary contribution as the Spirit of Hong Kong awards reached their finale last week.
The winners ranged from a hairdresser who has offered free cuts to hospital patients for decades to a survivor of the Lamma ferry tragedy who bravely saved the lives of two strangers. Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was on hand to officiate at the ceremony.
While 10 of the winners were selected by a nine-member panel, the 11th, Jill Robinson, was chosen by a public vote for her activism against the trade in bear-bile. Chairman of the judging panel and former chief secretary David Akers-Jones paid tribute to all the winners with a speech at last week's ceremony.
THE WINNERS
- Chan Kit-ying, director of services at Mother's Choice
- Elana Ho, a founder of Starfish Charitable Foundation, which offers free operations for mainland children with various ailments
- Kan Yiu-kwong, founder of the Grace Charity Foundation which has built schools in rural China
- Jenny Law Chun-heung, who has provided free monthly haircuts for 27 years to patients of Grantham Hospital
- Willy Law Wai-cheung, an advocate of policies for the disabled who uses a wheelchair himself
- Lee Ming-sun, a survivor of the Lamma ferry disaster who saved two strangers
- Pastor Lee Mo-fan, who has spent 50 years taking care of homeless elderly people
- Jill Robinson, an activist against the trade in bear bile
- Tsang Tsz-kwan, a blind student with no sensitivity in her fingertips who scored top grades in exams by reading Braille with her lips
- Elsa Tse Ngar-yee, former drug addict who now rescues girls
- Carmen Yau, a spinal muscular atrophy sufferer who counsels fellow "frozen people"
