A/Prof He Hong-Gu, from National University of Singapore, is a two-time awardee of the Singapore Cancer Society Cancer Research Grant.
When asked why cancer, she commented that cancer is one of the 5 research areas stated by the Ministry of Health and is one of the main problems in the society today. Cancer is also close to her heart as her family member passed away from colorectal cancer. She witnessed how cancer can totally change the person’s lifestyle and impact the people around.

She said, “Cancer is seen as a social taboo. The effect and toll it can have on a caregiver is immense. There should be more help for the caregivers and it is important for them to proactively overcome the barriers they face.”

Her research study resulted in developing an app. The app, ‘I can manage’ is an intervention that is can help caregivers. She continued,” Majority of the studies are from medical aspect. Not much studies were done on physiological and social wellbeing of the patients and caregivers. Therefore my second research on caregivers is a continued study from my first.”

The grant provided by SCS helped her and her PHD student in many aspects during the research. Through the grant received she was able to get participants for the study. She was also able to get assistant for the data and administrative work. She was also able to provide a token of appreciation to the participants who took part in the study. She managed to send her PHD student to Netherlands to present the study. The grant also assisted her to publish the report findings in a paper.

In conclusion she said, “If anyone wants to make a difference in the lives of cancer patients’ and resources are needed to support cancer research, just approach SCS.”