Faith, hope and Lo's charity
LAST NIGHT, the territory's final social season under British rule came to an unofficial end. There will be plenty of other functions between now and June 30, but the Hong Kong Cancer Fund Ball has managed, in the seven years it has been held, to become the grand full stop which marks the end of the winter whirl. In a few weeks time, the social set will disappear to warmer climates for Lunar New Year shortly followed by locations with cooler temperatures for the summer. And so they gathered together for the last time yesterday.
Even by the high-wattage standards which Hong Kong has set itself in such matters, the Cancer Fund Ball has always glittered brightest. This year the theme was James Bond - 007 leaping into action in 1997. Once guests had admired the flamboyant Bond-related costumes in the Regent lobby and run the gauntlet of black-clad, martial arts experts (specially booked for the occasion) on the staircase, they entered the Regent's ballroom which had been transformed into MI5's operations centre. Miss Moneypenny - actress Lois Maxwell - was there to add verisimilitude, as was Cancer Fund committee member Michelle Yeoh who has just been signed up to play the next Bond girl. Pierce Brosnan passed on a congratulatory message although not, alas, in person (he was Bonding with his new baby in Los Angeles).
The great, the good and the very wealthy danced to Tony Carpio's band. In the middle of the throng, enjoying herself immensely as she always does, was a tall, blonde Englishwoman who came to the territory 30 years ago and married a Hong Kong Chinese banker. Her name is Sally Lo and 10 years ago, when people could barely bring themselves to pronounce the word for the illness, she set up the Hong Kong Cancer Fund in a doctor's dining room.
It is no exaggeration to say that she and her team have managed to transform both the lives of cancer patients here and the way the authorities handle the disease. Just over a decade ago, she saw the effects of cancer on one woman's life and out of that tragedy made something good. And if she can persuade everyone to have a ball in the process, then that's a vital part of the gameplan: when the takings from last night's function are totted up, they will certainly exceed $7 million.
SALLY LO'S office is in what used to be the British military hospital in Borrett Road. She lives on the south side of the island in what used to be an army bunker. And last week, sitting in her garden talking on her mobile phone, she sounded as if she was organising a military campaign. 'I need to get the guns sorted out this afternoon,' she announced to one caller. The guns, of course, were props for the Bond ball. She and husband Robert Lo had spent some time in a toy shop that morning selecting them and she planned to spray-paint them gold later.
In between, there were calls about funeral arrangements. Eaon Jackson, Jacko the Jester at children's parties and a well-known Hong Kong character, had died the preceding week. He was a loyal supporter of Lo: a few weeks earlier, he had left his hospital bed for the last time in order to cheer on the first Terry Fox run in Hong Kong which had been organised by the Cancer Fund.