At some point of time in our lives, we would have heard, read, seen or even experienced the sufferings of a cancer battling patient which left us helpless not knowing what to do. I’m Sethu Ponniah, a philanthropist in the making, an environmentalist and an engineer by profession.

My family had our first brush with cancer when my sister was diagnosed with leukemia. It was a devastating news for us as she was barely 5 years of age, and I was a toddler and didn’t understand the situation back then. One thing I do remember is that she was absent from home very frequently. My sister survived the ordeal of the sickness.

Later in my early 20’s it hit us again, this time it was my grandmother and my aunt passing in the same year due to cancer detected at a very late stage. It was then as my family took care of them, I understood deeper the ordeal and pain that the patient and caregiver had to go through. We were so thankful & grateful to the Hospice personnel who visited our house and educated us on various aspects of palliative care for the patient and prepared us for the inevitable.

As I pondered through these episodes in my family and many other cancer-stricken friends & relatives that I witnessed, I realized the importance of support groups & society. They are an integral part of the treatment and at times their services could be the crucial factor to make or break a patient’s recovery. Being a firm believer in education, it is the most efficient tool that can create awareness amongst the masses. To create and train these highly specialized personnel and to keep them going in-order for them to serve and educate the masses, they need to be funded adequately consistently.

In support of National Cancer Society of Malaysia (NCSM) I have initiated a crowd funding drive where I’ll finally cut off my beard on 11th March 2022 that I grew for the past 2 years pledging for this cause. NCSM’s role is to educate, care & support the cancer patient and they run many prevention programmes.

Growing & maintaining my beard the last 2 years was a challenging task and it didn’t fall short of comments, some good mostly discouraging, ridiculed, laughed at, few admired but most of the time a head turner, nothing of those hampered my spirit to carry on and fulfill the pledge for a worthy cause that I believe in strongly. Assisting me to cut my beard on 11th March 2022 is my colleague Julia, whose husband is currently going through post-surgery chemotherapy treatment and receiving lots of support from a non-profit organisation such as NCSM.

No amount is too small when done with gratitude so let’s make this a very successful drive with overwhelming response. Please do share with others when you receive this plea befitting its term “crowdfunding”. See you all at Facebook Live on 11th March 2022 @ 3.30pm at the link below: