Tung announces that doctor Joanna Tse will have a $130m fund named after her
'She used her life to change Hong Kong people's values in the long run - not to see how much we own, but how much we can give. We remember her as a true daughter of Hong Kong.'
With these words, church elder Hugo Chan turned from a group of reporters and walked into the North Point funeral home yesterday to begin the service for Joanna Tse Yuen-man, the public doctor who died of atypical pneumonia after volunteering to work in a Sars ward.
Amid white roses, lilies and candles, over 400 mourners, including Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and other top officials, gathered to pay their respects at the funeral home. After eulogies, prayers and hymns from friends, colleagues and fellow churchgoers, the first public hospital doctor to die from Sars was then buried with highest honours in Gallant Garden.
Tse, 35, is the only woman buried in the garden - a cemetery for public servants who die while serving the community. She is the second medic to be buried there.
She died on May 13 after being infected while trying to resuscitate a terminal Sars patient at Tuen Mun Hospital. Her husband died of leukaemia a year ago.
Announcing that a $130 million government fund to help medics learn more about Sars had been set up in her name, the chief executive said Tse was a shining example to everyone in Hong Kong.