Cancer foundation’s new Kowloon centre provides art therapy, helping sick children to put aside illness and pain

For 2½ hours each week, three-year-old Pang Ho-wing puts the pain of illness aside when her mother, Anna Chung Si-si takes her to a centre for young cancer patients.

Run by the Children’s Cancer Foundation, the rehabilitation centre at So Uk Estate in Kowloon has free programmes such as handicrafts, drawing and sports classes for children with cancer.

Chung takes her daughter there for weekly sessions. “She was always excited to go there,” she says.

Chung, 39, and her husband were heartbroken when Ho-wing, the younger of their two daughters, was diagnosed with leukaemia more than a year ago.

“I was so sad,” Chung recalls. “I felt the sky had crumbled. I kept asking, ‘How could such a little girl suffer from this terrible disease?’”

She quit her clerical job last year to take care of the girl, who has had to undergo chemotherapy, bone marrow tests and receive continuous medication, enduring pain and side effects including vomiting, hair loss and mouth sores.

The sessions at the centre provide some relief for mother and daughter. The child is recovering, and has returned to kindergarten.

About 170 children in Hong Kong are diagnosed with various cancers each year, or about one in 10,000 children, according to the foundation. Hong Kong saw 33,075 new cancer cases in 2017, a year-on-year rise of 5.1 per cent, the highest increase in about 10 years, according to statistics released by the Hong Kong Cancer Registry on Wednesday.

The So Uk Estate centre opened in September, replacing an old one at Pak Tin Estate in Kowloon which was closed after being in operation for a decade.

The new 3770 sq ft centre offers free creative programmes to children with cancer and their families.

Foundation chairman Tony Ho Kwok-chung says the idea is to create a community centre that is different from typical ones, and the strong focus on art is helpful to children recovering from illness.

Research has shown that incorporating visual and performing arts in health care environments is effective in reducing sickness, anxiety and stress.

Ho says art allows children to express themselves, and believes it is a healing, soothing tool that helps take their minds off the pain.

“This is a place for healing,” says Ho, 54, an architect. “We are not doctors. Doctors cure cancers, but we help heal patients from the heart.”

The centre includes a revamped classroom called the Sunshine School for academic programmes and art classes, a playroom for children and parents to spend time together, and a youth corner for young adults to relax and socialise.

It also has a fully equipped kitchen for cooking classes, two interview rooms for counsellors to meet patients and their parents, and a 600 sq ft multi-function room for dance, music and drama classes.

All the walls of the centre are decorated with colourful artwork and murals by local artists and children.

Established in 1989, the foundation relies on donations and has served about 3,700 cancer patients and their families over the years. Its 48 full-time staff include 15 registered social workers and nine registered nurses.

Ho says he designed the new centre to be not only functional but also interesting for users and staff.

“I have seen many civic centres, and found some quite uninteresting,” he says. “As an architect, I want users to be inspired by a seemingly mundane centre to explore and get excited about coming back. I also want the staff to feel completely at home.”

A volunteer with the foundation for 24 years, Ho has seen children with cancer suffer both physically and mentally. But he is encouraged by those who recover, grow up and become doctors, nurses and social workers.

“My goal is to give them as many opportunities as possible to live a normal life,” he says.