The Internet is like…

…duct tape. There is a light side, a dark side and it holds the universe together. The most prevalent part when it comes to charity over the internet of course is the dark side. We have everything from annoying, bandwidth hungry forward-to-all-your-friends hoaxs, to conmen out to abuse the generosity of people.

Then once in a while we come across the light side, genuine cases of people suffering that we can help alleviate. I am of course talking about Yvonne Foong.

Yvonne suffers from Neurofibromatosis (NF). There are two types of Neurofibromatosis, type 1 and the rarer type 2. Both are an illness the result of genetic mutation that causes the uncontrollable growth of benign tumours in the human nervous system.

Type 2 NF, which Yvonne is afflicted, causes growths on both acoustic nerves in the body, resulting in the severe impairment of hearing and can be fatal. Yvonne’s hearing has since deteriorated to only 5% and she will soon lose it all unless she undergoes surgery.

Yvonne needs to raise US$28,600 or roughly about RM108,000 to undergo surgery at a specialist clinic in the United States. This is because, not for the lack of trying, doctors in Malaysia are at this time unable to help her without causing damage to the surrounding facial and balance nerves and teh nearby brain stem, causing paralysis to her face, taking away her sense of balance and maybe worse.

So please, for once we are faced with a genuine plea for help and contributing to a cause where we know there is no middle man to skim off the top and middle. Visit her website, read her story and if you feel compelled, please donate. You’ll be helping to save a fellow human being from a life of deafness, misery and maybe even premature death.