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Heart & Soul
Gens de cœur
Whoa Nelly!
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s a child in Hong Kong, Nelly Ng accompanied her establishing diplomatic relations between Canada and China.
pediatrician father on after-hours house calls to children
“I knew I could play a role, introducing her to the governwho lived in slums.
ment of Canada and helping her learn how to approach poten“We rode in comfort in a car and arrived in these areas tial financial supporters,” he said. “We made a lot of contacts.”
where many people were crammed into small quarters and
As its most recent endeavour, the foundation, which is
children had to run out of the house to get water,” recalls funded with $1.8-million in donations and pledges, has taken
Ng, a family physician with a busy practice in Scarborough, advanced imaging technology developed by the National ReOnt. “These were children like me, but I didn’t have to search Council to the site of the massive Three Gorges dam
worry about necessities. As a child, you wonder about this on the Yangtze river. The dam, scheduled to be completed in
unfairness.”
2003, will flood 80 000 hectares of land
Ng, 49, says her father was her role
and displace 1.5 million people. The
model and went out of his way to help
Zhang Fei Temple, which is in the
impoverished patients, a “vivid life lesflood path, has to be moved and reson” that Ng learned well. Since graduassembled. To aid this effort, Ng’s
ating from McMaster medical school in
foundation is donating advanced scanHamilton in 1978, she has thrown herning equipment. The technology allows
self into charitable activities — sitting
for ancient pieces of art to be captured
on boards and raising money for organiin 3-D, with the information digitized.
zations like Scarborough’s Grace and
“For archival purposes, this creates a
General hospitals and the Toronto
permanent record,” explains Ng. If an
Symphony Orchestra.
item is damaged in the move the 3-D
Eight years ago, she established her
digital image can guide the restoration.
own philanthropic foundation, a move
The scanning technology will also allow
inspired by her first trip to China. Her
for a “virtual” preservation of some
parents had fled the Communist regime
other treasures, including 3000 years of
in China for Hong Kong before Ng was
records of flood and drought carved
born, and her visit was planned as a
into the earth, which will be lost forever
respite from her hectic life, a quiet holibecause of the dam.
day with her husband. After visiting a
As well as bringing Canadian techmuseum, she was “literally struck in awe Dr. Nelly Ng: preserving China’s history
nology to China, the foundation has
to see the magnificent treasures, housebrought China to Canada, sponsoring 2
hold items created more than 2500 years ago. These were major exhibition tours here — Masterpieces of 20th-Century
not just artifacts, they reflected man’s wisdom and ingenu- Chinese Painting and Jade, the Ultimate Treasure of Ancient
ity.” But the items that so impressed her were at risk — mu- China (see CMAJ 2001;165(4):456-7).
seum preservation techniques were not advanced in China,
“It dawned on me that if we are setting programs to help
nor was conservation a priority in the rapidly developing conserve Chinese art, we should bring some of it here for
country.
people to see,” says Ng. “More than 150 000 people saw the
On her way home to Canada, she began to wonder how painting exhibit while it was here.”
she could help. “Canada is not an old country,” she mused,
Both Ng and O’Connell, who has retired from active duty
“but we are blessed with technology.”
and is now an emeritus founding cochair, like to think the
She decided to enlist the help of Martin O’Connell, a for- foundation is also providing a role model in China, where
mer federal cabinet minister with whom she had worked in nongovernmental organizations are rare.
an outreach program at the Grace Hospital in the 1970s,
Ng devotes every Wednesday to her charitable activities,
when he was a member of Parliament. “She phoned me one but makes up for it the rest of the week, employing 2 shifts of
day after I’d retired and said she had a favour to ask,” recalls office staff as she works her long days as a family physician.
O’Connell, who is now 85.
About half her patients are of Chinese origin — she speaks
The next thing he knew he was cochair, with Ng, of the both Mandarin and Cantonese — with many of the rest beCanadian Foundation for the Preservation of Chinese Cul- ing immigrants who must bring English-speaking relatives to
tural and Historical Treasures. “The subject matter interested translate for them. “They know that I have the patience,”
me, as it did [Ng],” says O’Connell, who was instrumental in says Ng. — Ann Silversides, Toronto
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JAMC • 27 NOV. 2001; 165 (11)
© 2001 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors