The Kit Ling Tang Memorial Fund

In 2014, my most loving and selfless 56 years old mother passed away from lung cancer; I often get looks of surprises when I tell people she never smoked a single cigarette in her whole life.

This page is set up in honor of her.

Here are the facts:

Lung Cancer is often stigmatized and severely undefended; lung cancer researchers receive only one-tenth the funding that breast and prostate cancer researchers do, and yet it kills more than both combined.

Dr. Natasha Leighl, a medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto and the president of Lung Cancer Canada, a national charitable organization  said in the Toronto Star that there is a Lung Cancer crisis in Canada.

Up to 15 per cent of lung cancer diagnoses in Canada are in people who never smoked. Indeed, lung cancer in non-smokers is the eighth largest cancer killer in Canada. For reasons that are not yet clear, the vast majority of never-smokers diagnosed with lung cancer are women. A published paper in the Nature magazine ( dated 11 September 2014)  stated that " In southeast Asia, half of all the women who develop lung cancer have never smoked. In fact, if lung cancer in never-smokers were considered a distinct disease, it would be the seventh leading cancer killer worldwide^".

Here’s what I am doing:

10km in 60 minutes

I am registered to run in the Toronto Yonge street 10k event on April 19 to remember my mother and to raise money for Lung Cancer Canada. The annual spring run started in the late 70s and almost 15,000 participated in recent years.

In return, I am asking for your donation toward Lung Cancer Canada. Lung Cancer Canada is the only national charitable organization that is solely dedicated to serve lung cancer patients and their families.

Your donation will go directly to:

-Increasing Lung Cancer awareness and eradicating its stigma through the media outlet and hosting public events; providing advocacy plus educational support to caregivers and people living with the disease

-Providing Peer to Peer support to connect lung cancer patients and survivors to one another to share stories, experience and to tend some emotional support

-Covering the cost of shipping, printing and distrbuiting A Patient's Guide to Lung Cancer, that walks people through the experience of fighting lung cancer, from diagnosis to treatement to recovery, to hosptials and clinics all across Canada.

My goal is to run 10k in an hour. 

In order to prepare for my run , I am running about 21 miles a week (and indefinitely beyond April 19.)  As a regular runner, I am already running everyday for the Charity Miles, Every mile logged allows me to raise $0.25 for the charity of my choice. I decided to raise the majority of the money for Stand Up to Cancer, Stand Up to Cancer is a charitable program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. SU2C aims to raise significant funds for translational cancer research through online and televised efforts.

So your donation is not only going to Lung Cancer Canada, but you are also supporting me through indirectly fundraising for SU2C.

With over a 1000 dollar raised,  Lung Cancer Canada will dedicate a tree to my mother's memory (through a plaque) in the Lung Cancer Canada Grove located in Toronto. Thank you everyone!

The goal of this memorial fund is to raise a 1800 dollar.

Why 1800 dollar?

My mother fought stage four lung cancer for 18 gruelling months. She broke her femur, had all kind of treatements and held out for as long as she could so she could spend more time with her loved ones. My new goal is to raise a 100 dollar for each month my mother had to endure since the time of her cancer daignosis.

The fundraising campagin and more future marathons will continue for the next 18 months; the same period of time my mother fought courageously with lung cancer with humility, dignity and love.

I have never participated in a marathon, let alone a 10km marathon.  I can barely do 5k in 30 minutes, so this is not something that is easily achievable for me, if at all, but I will set it as my goal. 

The fundraising campagin and more future marathons will continue for the next 18 months; the same period of time my mother fought courageously with lung cancer with humility, dignity and love.

March 1, 2015 : I am beyond thrill that I have exceeded my initial target of 1000 in less than two weeks. I am truly touched and honored by the generosity of friends and family who donated in memory of my mom. I will always miss my mother deeply and there’s nothing that can be done about that; I feel extremely grateful for all the support that I have received to help me plant a tree in honor of my mother in Seaton Park.

Though my initial target has been reached, the fundraising will continue until we reach 1800 dollar, please make a donation in order to help Lung Cancer Canada to get the message out about this awful disease.