Dr Tan Lai Yong
spent the last 15 years in rural China running village doctors
training programme and working with disabled people. (Photo
courtesy of Tan Lai Yong)
Under our "Inspiring People" monthly column,
we highlight the incredible journey of one person
who has overcome tremendous odds to achieve personal
success. This column celebrates the triumph of the human
spirit and we hope it will inspire you to reach for your
dreams too. This month, we bring to you a local doctor who spent
the last 15 years helping villagers in China.
At 50, doctor Tan Lai Yong counts himself
fortunate that neither he nor his wife feel the pressing need to do
“something significant” with the rest of their lives.
But that’s because they have already led a “full life”,
having spent the last 15 years in rural China, where Tan ran a
village doctors training programme and worked with disabled
people.
In 1996, Tan, his wife and one-year-old daughter moved
to Xishuangbanna, a small Thai-speaking town in the southern tip
ofYunnan. There, he spent four years training
doctors and working with the disabled before relocating to Kunming,
the capital ofYunnan.
Tan then joined the Kunming Medical University and
trained village doctors and hospital doctors. He also led
medical work with non-governmental organisation Bless China
International, which is based in Yunnan.
“The past 15 years have been a sweet dream,” described
Tan, who studied medicine in Singapore before making
the leap to work in a developing country.
Tan’s experiences have been featured in several
publications. Most recently, he was interviewed for the Singapore Medical
Association’s (SMA) magazine and conferred the SMA
lectureship, which is awarded to distinguished people who have made
significant contributions to medicine and the community.
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It is good to do charity. Dr Tan, charity starts
at home. What about the less fortunate people in Singapore,
do you care to do charity to them?