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Indonesian Billionaire Personally Issued $100k Cheque After Reading News About Boy with Leukaemia

2022-03-08 , 1:36 pm

Unable to bear seeing a 5-year-old Malaysian boy suffering from leukaemia, a 69-year-old Indonesian billionaire, Ang Tjoen Ming, called up the boy’s family for their home address and personally delivered a S$100,000 cheque to the family.

The humble and philanthropic billionaire even reassured the financially fraught father, saying, “You don’t need to worry [about the expenses] anymore, letting the child make full recovery is the most important.”

There are miracles in this world…

And they are oftentimes created by humans themselves.

Ang Was Moved by the News of the Boy with Leukaemia

As the founder of the Mayapada Group, Ang Tjoen Ming is the 16th richest person in Indonesia with a net worth of US$2.6 billion (S$3.5 billion), as reported by Forbes Indonesia.

On 4 March, Shin Min News Daily covered the boy’s fundraiser for his haploidentical transplant on the online crowdfunding platform Give.asia.

Mr Ang has four children and numerous grandchildren, his youngest grandson being only four years old.

He happened to be in Singapore at the time of the article’s publishing and read the news late at night.

The story of Isaac Ng and his fight against Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia moved him, so Mr Ang gave the family a call the next morning, asking Ng Gai Loong—the 43-year-old father working as a construction project manager—how his son was doing, and what his home address was.

Mr Ang Pays a Personal Visit

What Isaac’s father could never have expected was that Mr Ang would personally appear at his doorstep late in the afternoon, after the phone call.

Mr Ang was dressed in a white shirt and black pants when he arrived at the Ng residence, stating that he felt a connection with the young boy after seeing his pictures, which made him decide to help immediately.

He even remarked to young Isaac that he bore a resemblance to his own four-year-old grandson.

After they were seated at the table, Mr Ang pulled out a cheque from his black wallet and gave the S$100,000 cheque to Mr Ng.

Besides that, he promised that he would be responsible for the rest of the medical fees.

He comforted Isaac’s father, telling him not to worry anymore, and that focusing on treating the child until he was completely recovered was the most important thing.

Then, Mr Ang turns towards Isaac and says affectionately, “Grandpa will help you recover and be able to live a strong and healthy life. You will definitely become a good person, that is more capable than Grandpa.”

Mr Ng Chokes Up While Thanking Mr Ang

When Mr Ng recounted Mr Ang’s unexpected visit to the Chinese newspaper reporters, he recalls being choked up as he received the cheque.

At a loss for words, Mr Ng placed his hands together and thanked the billionaire.

Mr Ng expressed that now he could finally put down the large rock that had been weighing down on his heart, and focus on his son’s treatment.

The Story of Isaac Ng

Isaac Ng was only three years old when he was first diagnosed with standard Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) in 2019.

Back then, Isaac had been admitted to the hospital because of the persistent bruises on his face and a high fever that he was suffering from.

He was later treated at the University Malaya Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur, and responded well to the chemotherapy, thus making a full recovery from his first battle with cancer.

Unfortunately, Isaac suffered a relapse 13 months later, even though his initial assessments showed that he had a very low chance of relapsing.

Thus, his chemotherapy regime was switched to a stronger and more intense version, with the ultimate goal of giving him a bone marrow transplant.

Let alone the fact that it’s very difficult to find a compatible bone marrow transplant donor, Isaac’s cancer cells proved to be too resistant against the chemotherapy, and it was incredibly aggressive.

This also meant that the boy didn’t respond well to the relapse treatment, and he wasn’t in the right condition to undergo the bone marrow transplant.

Although the family was given the devastating news that there was no longer any treatment options available for Isaac in Malaysia because his leukaemia had proven to be too resistant and aggressive, the family didn’t stop searching for treatment options.

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Chimeric-Antigen Receptor T-cell Therapy

The family began searching abroad and found a treatment called Chimeric-Antigen Receptor T-cell Therapy (CAR-T), but it wasn’t available in Malaysia.

His doctors proceeded to refer him to the National University Hospital (NUS) of Singapore since the high-tech treatment was available there.

As any Singaporean would know, hospital fees and specialised medical equipment can be notoriously expensive, to say nothing of how Ng’s family were not Singaporeans.

Though they were not subsidised by the Singaporean Government, the manufacturing process of CAR-T product was subsidised by the Goh Foundation.

Even then, the medical costs were estimated to be S$150,000 to S$180,000, including the hospitalisation fees.

Moreover, Isaac had to stay in Singapore for the next 9 to 12 months to guarantee that he was monitored and given proper care before he could be transferred back to Malaysia for further rehabilitation and treatment.

Since the family were moving to Singapore with him, it posed a considerable financial strain on them because they were all middle-income workers in Malaysia.

Nevertheless, the family persisted, and Isaac managed to undergo CAR-T therapy in Dec 2021.

The boy managed to tolerate the procedure, and the post-CAR-T evaluation showed that the therapy was effective against his leukaemia cells.

But one month later, tests showed that Isaac had lost the CAR-T cells that were supposed to help him detect and fight the cancer cells in the long term. Without them, Isaac would be at a high risk of relapsing again.

The only silver lining was that the CAR-T therapy had temporarily suspended Isaac’s leukaemia cells, which was a small victory and provided a good foundation for the bone marrow transplant.

Need for Haploidentical Stem Cell Transplant

As previously mentioned, it’s hard to find a fully compatible bone marrow donor, even from directly related family members.

For siblings, there is a 1 in 4 chance that they are well-matched, and the following procedure is called Matched Related Donor (MRD) transplant.

Whereas for Isaac Ng, his father happened to be a partial match, which means that he’s able to perform the Haploidentical (Half-Matched) Stem Cell Transplant.

The financial challenge weighed down on the family again, because the Haploidentical Transplant cost approximately S$350,000 at NUH.

The family searched for cheaper alternatives like Malaysia, but it was a race against time for Isaac.

Left with no other recourse, the family went onto Give.asia again, in a plea that they could crowdfund enough money for their son’s medical expenses.

At the time of writing this article, S$477,740 out of $550,000 has been raised for Isaac Ng’s upcoming Haploidentical Transplant in mid-April 2022, the donations coming from 3,128 kind givers.

If you’re financially able and wish to help Isaac in his battle against cancer as well, you can donate to him here.

All donations will go towards his medical fees.

Isaac Ng’s Brilliance

Since Isaac is preparing for the bone marrow transplant in the next month, he needs to constantly take medication to control his condition and ensure that the cancer cells don’t relapse.

During this period of time, the boy has to be especially careful with his food intake and avoid certain fruits and raw foods, and he usually stays at home apart from his visits to his hospital

Just before Mr Ang left, Isaac gave him a picture of the Doraemon he coloured, to express his gratitude.

Mr Ng commented that while his young son doesn’t really understand what he’s been experiencing thus far, since he could give away the drawing, it clearly shows that he could feel the genuine concern that everyone has shown him.

But perhaps Isaac does understand his own situation, in some capacity.

Isaac Ng has shown the propensity to become a brilliant person in the future as he talks to world-renowned doctors and even discusses complicated math questions with them.

In Isaac’s consciousness, the hospital is one of the places that he’s most familiar with, and he hasn’t been able to attend school due to his condition.

Despite that, he’s deeply influenced by his father’s career and has shown a vested interest in mathematics, and even watches the cartoon Numberblocks to learn maths on his own.

Isaac also revealed to his father that he wants to be a doctor or a police officer that helps people when he grows up in the future.

Mr Ang’s Philanthropic Work

Mr Ang Tjeon Ming has done extensive philanthropic work in all the years of his life.

In an interview with Shin Min Daily News, Mr Ang revealed that he had responded to a similar request six years ago.

A couple had waited for Mr Ang below his office with their six-month-old daughter. The infant was suffering from thalassemia, and she needed chemotherapy and bone transplant.

Mr Ang did not hesitate to pay for all of the girl’s medical expenses, which amounted to more than S$350,000.

Prior to that, Mr Ang has also contributed US$1000 million towards the global prevention of HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2013.

In his parting words, Mr Ang shared his life philosophy, “Firstly, I don’t possess wealth, only manage wealth; secondly, it’s by God’s grace that I am given the opportunity to help the weak and needy; thirdly, you’re actually healing your own illness when you’re healing the illnesses of others; fourthly, I am a Christian, and I bear witness of the world for the Lord, glorifying God and helping people. It’s that simple.”