Humanitarian Service Awardee 2024

Dr. KWONG Wing-yan (MBChB 2010) is the awardee in Humanitarian Service 2024 of the Distinguished Medical Alumni Award

Dr Wing-yan Kwong has spent her life helping those in need. Since she was a teenager, Wing Yan has been working with local volunteering organisations in her community.

After entering CUHK, she didn't hesitate to take a gap year during her third year in medical school to embark on her first overseas mission in Cameroon. She contracted malaria twice and would have lost her life if not for the aid rendered by the villagers she lived with. She was deeply impressed by the compassion shown to her and other fellow human beings by the very community she wanted to help. Dr Kwong became determined to use her time and talent to protect the lives of the less fortunate.

After graduating in 2010, she joined the emergency department in a public hospital. With being a humanitarian worker in mind, she believes becoming an emergency physician would allow her to contribute the most. She participated in more relief missions in Ethiopia and Zambia during her specialist training. In 2016, following her voluntary medical efforts during the Nepal earthquake, she was recognised with the Hong Kong Humanity Award. Most recently, she heeded the call of the Hong Kong Red Cross for a month-long rescue mission in the Mediterranean Sea in July 2023. She provided emergency medical care on board a rescue vessel, recovered over 600 displaced persons and brought them safely to Italy.

Dr Kwong has actively participated as a clinician in the regional emergency medicine community. She is an active fellow of the HK College of Emergency Medicine and was awarded the Distinguished Young Fellow honour in 2020. She was also Air Medical Officer of HK Government Flying Service from 2018 to 2021.

Dr Kwong's consistent and selfless contribution to the less fortunate sets her apart from most of us. It is rare to see a doctor putting her education, training and career on hold multiple times to render volunteer service.