The wife of Alzheimer's-afflicted Nobel physics laureate Charles Kao Kuen is setting up a charity to raise awareness of the disease and promote better support for people who care for sufferers.
Gwen Kao Wong May-wan will chair the Charles K. Kao Foundation for Alzheimer's Disease, a non-profit organisation she hopes will help find a cure for the condition. Kao, known as the father of fibre optics, was diagnosed with the disease in 2004.
Wong, who earlier this year publicly urged the government to provide more resources for day care for dementia patients, said the idea for the foundation came after Kao's Nobel award last year put him at the centre of international media attention.
'I thought I could make use of the publicity and turn it into something more meaningful,' she said. 'There is a lack of knowledge of the disease. People don't know what to do with it; doctors don't get training in how to treat it, resulting in many people sweeping it under the carpet.
'People in the early days just tranquillised the patients. It's a bit like what cancer was decades ago, when it seemed to be a hidden, shameful ailment. But it's come into the open now and cures for some common forms of cancer have been found.
'Only if everyone is aware of this terrible disease will we find a cure.'
The foundation, to be inaugurated on Tuesday, World Alzheimer's Day, will launch programmes to support care givers, raise public awareness and encourage co-operation among organisations to ensure resources are shared efficiently.
