AirAsia Raises RM120K for Cancer Patients

19th Oct 2015

Malaysian carrier AirAsia Berhad was able to raise a total of RM120,945.65 in the five months the campaign to ease the financial burden for cancer patients and their families has been going on.

Chief executive officer at AirAsia Aireen Omar said she came up with the idea to boost cancer awareness following the death of her own mother last year.

She and her team then proceeded to work with the National Cancer Council (Makna) on designing a special limited edition T-shirt and later sell it for RM30 each.

Aireen said the following about the campaign:

We will continue to create awareness of the disease.

One in Four Malaysians Affected by the Disease

According to some estimates, one in every four Malaysian citizens is suffering from some form of cancer. For many of them, treatment is too expensive. To help them, Farahida Mohd Farid urged anyone going through cancer treatment, as well as their families to contact the organization for financial aid.

Among those who are receiving financial help from Makna is an 18-year old leukemia patient Darvinraajbarath Muniandy, who said he is thankful for all the help Makna is providing to him and his family since he has been diagnosed when he was only six years old.

Darvinraajbarath’s father Muniandy Sackari explained the treatment for his son in a private hospital in Subang cost as much as RM200,000, which would be almost impossible to raise with his taxi driver paycheck.  However, with Makna’s aid, they managed to cut the cost by RM12,000 and MIC youth chief Datuk T. Mohan raised the funds to help the family get the rest.

Darvinraajbarath is now free of cancer and is attending the Selangor Matriculation College, with hopes to help cancer patients himself in the future.

Makna is also providing help for Nur Aleesya Husna Hairull Hafizal, who has to fight leukemia at only 4 years and requires special formula milk during her treatment at GHKL (Kuala Lumpur Hospital). Her mother, Mastura Mohd Noor turned to Makna for help and is currently receiving RM200 every month.