Operation Santa Claus: love conquers all for devoted mother of severely disabled daughter

Tam Kwai-yuk visits her 42-year-old daughter, Li Sze-yan, at Lai Yiu Hostel in Lai King every day. Approaching her eighties, the commute to the hostel, which caters for the disabled, tires her out. But she insists on going because she worries Li's condition will worsen if she's not around.

"My dream is for her to walk again," says the retired factory worker from Tsuen Wan. Her daughter was diagnosed with a severe mental disability after Tam noticed a slowness in the way she would respond to emotional stimuli as an infant.

"At the time I thought it was the end of the world," she recalls.

Between the ages of five and six, Li developed epilepsy so severe she would have spasms 10 times a day, causing her muscles and cognitive functioning to degenerate until she became wheelchair-bound.

Tam massages her daughter's muscles daily. She knows manpower is limited at the hostel and hopes that by caring diligently for her daughter, Li's body can heal itself.

With the hostel having a ratio of 1.3 members of staff for every service user, Tam is not alone in her concern for the lack of staff to care for the 72 severely disabled individuals, whose needs increase as their bodies age.

The Post reported this year that Hong Kong is facing a ticking time bomb when it comes to providing support for the disabled and their families as medical advances mean people live longer, posing an extra strain on already limited resources.