Brave ferry victim's exam worries

Cherry Chan Lok-yee, who lost her left foot in a ferry collision on Tuesday, is putting a brave face on things, her husband said yesterday.

But she is worried she will not be able to attend her final examination next month for a diploma.

Ms Chan, 26, is recovering in Tuen Mun Hospital after being told that surgery to re-attach her foot had failed.

'Her condition is quite stable. She is as brave and positive as she always is. This is fate. No one has thought of the accident,' said her husband, who gave his name only as Lo. The couple were married a few months ago.

Ms Chan is a garment merchandiser and final-year part-time student at the Polytechnic University.

She was due to complete her three-year diploma evening course this summer.

'I will talk to her schoolmates and lecturers to see what we can arrange for her,' her husband said.

Ms Chan was on the Zhuhai-bound catamaran Hai Yang on a business trip when a Hongkong and Yaumati Ferry Company vessel rammed into it off the Brothers Islands.

Twenty-seven people were injured, including Ms Chan, whose left foot was severed. It took an hour for her foot to be found and sent to hospital.

Five other men injured in the collision are in stable condition in hospital.

An inquiry has been ordered into the circumstances surrounding the collision.