Teaming up with St Jude to fight childhood cancer

-Lo Tien Yin

CHILDHOOD CANCER is the second major cause of death among children in Singapore . Between 120 and 140 newly diagnosed cases, approximately 43 per cent are children with leukaemia. The numbers are rising. To help improve the survival rate and treatment of these children, the Viva Foundation for Children with Cancer was launched (30 May), a collaboration between NUS, National University Hospital (NUH) and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital ( Memphis , USA ). The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by Mrs Theresa Foo, Chair, Viva Foundation; Dr William E Evans, Director, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital ; Mr Chua Song Khim, CEO, NUH; and Professor Shih Choon Fong, NUS President. The signing ceremony was witnessed by Professor Lim Pin of NUS and Dr Ching-Hon Pui of St Jude.

BATTLE AGAINST CHILDHOOD CANCER: Professor John Wong, Dean, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Vice President of Research/Life Sciences, NUS (above) officiating a live video-conference with doctors from St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, at the launch of the Viva Foundation. The choir from St Stephen’s Primary School rounded up the evening by rendering a soul-touching “If We Hold On Together” (inset).

The new partnership will operate under the St Jude-Singapore International Outreach Programme – led by Dr Pui and Dr Raul Ribeiro of St Jude; and Professor Quah Thuan Chong and Dr Allen Yeoh, Department of Paediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS. The two also hold appointments at NUH.

Besides raising funds to support education and clinical research initiatives, plans in the pipeline include establishing an outstanding paediatric stem cell transplantation programme; a chair in paediatric oncology at NUS; as well as fellowship programmes for training local and foreign doctors and nurses. Also being planned is the annual St Jude-Asia Forum in Paediatric Oncology in Singapore, the first of which will be held in March 2007.

NUS mooters win top honours

NUS PARTICIPATED in the Annual International Inter-University Intellectual Property Mooting Competition for the first time – and took top honours despite stiff competition. The NUS team, represented by law students Suegene Ang and Felicia Tan, was accompanied by their coach Associate Professor Eleanor Wong, Director of the Legal Writing Programme at NUS.

The highly prestigious competition (1 to 2 April 2006) was held at Oxford University ’s Oriel College . NUS beat the University College of London to compete at the finals with Oxford University .

CHAMPION MOOTERS: From left: Associate Professor Eleanor Wong, Felicia Tan and Suegene Ang, with Professor Vaver, Director of Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre.

Said Associate Professor Wong: “The win was particularly sweet as the team had met Oxford in one of the preliminary rounds but had narrowly lost that round, as they were still finding their feet with a relatively new format and different expectations of the judging panels.”