When Hong Kong got its first kidney dialysis treatment centre in 1981
Millions were raised to fund the medical centre, with charitable donations from the likes of the Jockey Club and businessman Li Ka-shing, reported the Post at the time
“The Hongkong Kidney Foundation will soon have its own treatment centre in Kowloon for patients with kidney diseases,” reported the South China Morning Post on September 23, 1980. “The centre will be in Prince Building, Prince Edward Road. It will be the colony’s first kidney diseases treatment centre. The centre, which will also serve as the foundation’s headquarters, has been made possible by various donations.
On August 5, 1981, the Post stated, “The acting Governor, Sir Jack Cater, will this evening officiate at the opening of the Hongkong Kidney Foundation’s dialysis centre. The centre has been bought with a donation from Mr Li Ka-shing. This has enabled the foundation, which is a voluntary organisation dedicated to helping kidney patients, to begin functioning.”
The next day, the Post reported that “Sir Jack Cater, officiated at the opening ceremony, held at the Pearl Theatre in Causeway Bay. And he praised the Hongkong Kidney Foundation, who will run the new centre in Kowloon, for its ‘vigorous efforts to focus [on] and combat the problems experienced by kidney disease sufferers in Hongkong.’
“The ceremony was followed by a charity premiere for the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only - organised by the Hongkong Round Table No 10 – which raised about $100,000 for the foundation.
“A member of the foundation’s board of governors, a leading surgeon, said that every year 400-500 new cases of kidney disease come to light here. The surgeon added that ‘without proper treatment, those people would eventually die.’
“In a foreword to the programme for the charity premiere, Sir Jack wrote: ‘While the Hongkong Government has ambitious medical development programmes, including a planned expansion of its haemodialysis service, there are few governments which have achieved complete medical coverage for all its citizens in all areas.’”