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Wednesday, 14 Feb, 2024
“Let’s give it to charity”: Diana Koh’s last words to help others with cancer
Five words that launched a new journey of giving and impacting lives.
From left: Ms Janet Lim, Executor, Estate of Diana Koh; Prof Thomas Coffman, Dean, Duke-NUS; and Prof David Virshup, Director, Cancer and Stem Cell Biology, Duke-NUS; at an appreciation gathering at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House on 3 October 2023.A charitable vision shared by two cousins, Diana Koh and Janet Lim, began in 2019 in a hospital ward.
“Cancer struck my cousin very unexpectedly,” said Ms Lim. “It was a very, very short time, and in that time, she was very ill.”
Given just months to live, Ms Koh made a last request to Ms Lim: “Diana had no immediate family members, so she conveyed to me her wish for her entire estate to be given to charity.”
“She didn’t want to overburden me. She told me, ‘Don’t give yourself too much work. Just distribute it and give it away.’”
Her cousin’s request started Ms Lim on a journey in philanthropy as executor of the Estate of Diana Koh. At the time, her idea of giving was, as she calls it, very traditional. “I thought you just wrote cheques once you decided who the deserving organisation was.
“But as I began the work of philanthropy, I felt a deep sense of responsibility to ensure that Diana’s estate be well used. She had had a very successful career in accountancy, but very little time to enjoy it. These resources she had left behind were the result of very hard work.”
Ms Lim engaged the Community Foundation of Singapore, a philanthropic advisory, to help her administer the Estate and effectively navigate the philanthropic landscape. With their support, the Estate began empowering many worthy causes, including in education, nursing, programmes supporting children, marginalised groups, women’s advocacy, the arts and aged care.
She also drew on her own past experience as Assistant High Commissioner with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), leading crisis relief efforts in conflict zones such as Syria, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan for 34 years. Over time, Ms Lim developed her own criteria for assessing the potential impact of a non-profit, such as management capacity, programme sustainability, critical funding gaps, and whether a gift can effectively advocate for the cause.
Guided by a belief in the transformative power of medical research, Ms Lim visited Duke-NUS in 2023, keen to learn more about the School’s Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Programme: “The idea that translational research at Duke-NUS flows from the science lab towards treatment of patients deeply resonated with me. I was also personally interested in helping to create more innovative approaches for cancer treatment, especially targeting at the younger generations of scientists.”
In July 2023, the Estate of Diana Koh, through Ms Lim, donated $500,000 to Duke-NUS to establish the
Diana Koh Innovative Cancer Research Fund to support junior faculty, postdocs, and research scientists who have new and innovative ideas for the treatment of cancer.
“I wanted to create a new opportunity for young aspiring scientists with the willingness to explore bold, risk-taking ideas, so that they can pursue creative new directions in cancer research.”
Members of Duke-NUS Medical School with Ms Lim and her Community Foundation of Singapore partners at the appreciation gathering.Disbursed as seed grants of up to $50,000 per project, the first two Diana Koh Innovative Cancer Research Fund grants were awarded in December 2023 to early career scientists working on sarcomas, which are cancers in the bone and soft tissues—the type of cancer Ms Koh had suffered from.
 | The first grantee, Assistant Professor Tang Hong Wen, Cancer and Stem Cell Biology (CSCB), will employ fruit fly models and cross-species studies to examine possible genetic causes of Rhabdomyosarcoma, the most common paediatric soft-tissue sarcoma which accounts for four percent of all children diagnosed with cancer in Singapore.
“With this generous support from the Diana Koh Foundation, we are able to undertake research to unlock new insights on this highly aggressive form of cancer; we believe this work can contribute to advancements in the sarcoma field,” said Asst Prof Tang. |
 | The second recipient, Mr Alvin Guo, a CSCB research fellow, will explore the potential of new cancer drug combinations for boosting the immune system to effectively fight sarcomas.
Said Mr Guo, “Advanced sarcomas resist common treatments, demanding novel approaches. My research pinpoints a macrophage gene crucial for phagocytosis. Harnessing this potential may be a promising new way to for fighting tumours, and I’m very grateful for the Diana Koh Foundation’s support in exploring this new pathway.”
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Conveying his gratitude, Duke-NUS Dean Professor Thomas Coffman said, “We are deeply grateful to the Estate of Diana Koh and Ms Janet Lim, not only for their generous giving, but for their passion to advocate for the cause of helping others to overcome cancer. We look forward to achieving this together through our philanthropic partnership in the years ahead.”
For Ms Lim, it is enough if her cousin’s estate can make a lasting impact on the next generation: “Diana was a very private person; she never asked that her name be remembered. But I felt that it was right, and I hope that people’s lives and circumstances will be positively shaped by her legacy.”