Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

THE Fong’s Family Foundation and the Fong Shu Fook Tong Foundation from Hong Kong have donated a Varian VitalBeam linear accelerator worth 290 million yuan (US$44.66 million) to the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH).

The Varian VitalBeam linear accelerator, which is the hospital’s second linear accelerator, was put into use yesterday, which will reduce the average waiting time of cancer patients from 28 days to nine days.

The Shu Wah Clinical Oncology Radiotherapy Center, where the state-of-the-art linear accelerator for advanced radiotherapy is installed, was also inaugurated at the hospital on the same day.

The VitalBeam linear accelerator is a versatile radiation therapy machine that can treat cancers throughout the body using advanced methods such as image guidance, radiosurgery, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, stereotactic body radiotherapy and RapidArc beam delivery.

By combining respiratory gating, real-time tracking, imaging and high-dose rate treatment delivery, the linear accelerator treats tumors with advanced speed and accuracy.

Lo Chung-mau, chief executive of HKU-SZH, expressed gratitude to the foundations’ support for medical service improvement via video link with David Fong, vice chairman of the two foundations, yesterday.

Fong is the managing director and a third-generation member of Hip Shing Hong (Holdings) Co. Ltd., a family-owned property developer in Hong Kong.

The group donates approximately 10-15 percent of its annual profits to support philanthropic work, mainly through the family’s two foundations, across Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.

The donations made by the two Hong Kong foundations are mainly used in education, elderly and childcare services, medical services, poverty alleviation and other charitable causes.