The Children's Heart Foundation

On November 10th, 1994 the Children's Heart Foundation was set up by a group of parents whose children had suffered from heart problems. for many years, the Children's Heart Foundation had an office at Grantham Hospital, which had been the main center for pediatric heart disease treatment in Hong Kong until 2009. As mentioned on the Grantham page, the hospital worked closely with and provided full support to the Children's Heart Foundation, and this close relationship continues now that the Department of Pediatric Cardiology has been set up at the Queen Mary Hospital.

The Children's Heart Foundation is run entirely on donations, which are often sent directly to the foundation or placed in donation boxes at various locations in Hong Kong. In addition, the foundation organizes a number of fundraising events to support its services.

All funds raised are used to support the foundation's charitable activities, including providing financial support for treatment for children with heart problems, buying medical equipment, arranging overseas surgeons to come to Hong Kong to perform surgery, making overnight housing available for parents of the hospitalized children through it House of the Heart, and organizing frequent educational and recreational activities for members of the foundation and for the general public.

Both Aaron and his father David feel strongly that we need to give back to the community. With the encouragement of his family, David joined the board of the Children’s Heart Foundation. Currently he is Co-Chair of the Fundraising Committee of the CHF.

Aaron has now participated in the CHF annual charity walk five times; the distance is about 3 kilometers (the first year, in the fall of 2004, he was not strong enough to do more than 1.5 kilometers on crutches). In the first two years, Aaron raised about HKD11,000/year, but in 2006, David and Aaron put much more effort into fundraising for the foundation. They composed a letter to many friends, people who had given to Aaron's fund the first time, and David's colleagues to support Aaron in the walk. The staff of the CHF, Bonnie and Timsik, sent out about 100 invitations to participate in the walk and to support Aaron.

Graciously, many people responded and in 2006, Aaron's three kilometer work was transformed into HKD 103,000, making Aaron the second biggest donor after Nu Skin, and ahead of larger corporations such as Standard Chartered Bank and Ocean Park! He received a certificate at the walk, recognizing his great efforts on behalf of kids with heart problems. A photo of the awards ceremony is below. He is proud of his efforts and we are proud of him!

Since then, Aaron and David, as well as the staff of the CHF, have worked even harder to get more donations in support of Aaron's walk, and have recruited many of their friends to join the walk. In 2007 and 2008, Aaron raised over HKD300,000. More recent pictures of the walk are displayed below.