Wheelchair-friendly places and foster homes: father’s love conquers life of hard knocks for this Hong Kong family
- Father of two Chris Cheng, 44, has muscular dystrophy and has to call on foster care to raise his sons, but still tries his best to remain a key part of their lives
- There are 954 foster families in Hong Kong, with an NGO saying demand for such services is ‘significant’
The Cheng family has had some hard knocks. Chris Cheng Wai-yiu, 44, who has two sons, suffers from muscular dystrophy and will use a wheelchair for life. His wife died of leukaemia when his older son, Matthew, was in kindergarten.
“When my sons were younger, I could still take care of them, since I could still stand temporarily and do various sorts of things,” Cheng said of his boys, now aged 10 and 11.
“However, now I am in a wheelchair, so I often cannot attend to their needs immediately. If they spill something, I cannot clean it. And I cannot bring them to places with stairs.”
Muscular dystrophy is a genetic condition that causes progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass in a person over time. As his disease became more severe, Cheng decided to put his sons into foster care about four years ago.
The carers for Cheng’s sons are among 954 such families in Hong Kong volunteering for foster services. According to NGO the Hong Kong Family Welfare Society, which coordinates foster care, demand is “significant” in the city, but not all of the needy find matches.
