StarHubbers shave heads for children with cancer

Singapore, 16 May 2012 46 employees from StarHub and their wholly-owned subsidiary Nucleus Connect, including seven women, shaved their heads today in support of Hair for Hope 2013. This is the second consecutive year in which StarHub is supporting Hair for Hope.

Hair for Hope is the Children's Cancer Foundation's call to the public to go bald. Through this symbolic gesture, shavees help to spread awareness of childhood cancer in Singapore, show children that it is okay to be bald and that they are not alone in their fight against cancer, as well as raise funds to help children with cancer and their families.

StarHub is supporting Hair for Hope because we firmly believe in helping the children with cancer, and their families, said Mr Adam Reutens-Tan, Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility Manager, StarHub. Children with cancer face many challenges in their lives, such as pain from the disease and the treatment, and the stigma imposed by society and even family members. Many of their families also struggle to afford the costly treatments. As young children, it is more difficult for them to understand why and accept that they are afflicted.

StarHub wants the children and their families to know that they are not alone, that there is a community who supports them in spirit and in kind, stated Mr Reutens-Tan, who is shaving his head for the fourth time. For the StarHub staff who shaved today, this is a brave yet relatively small gesture. Our hair will grow back, either in weeks or months. But for these children, their hair may never return. We hope that well-wishers will support our sacrifice with donations to Children's Cancer Foundation.

To support this cause and its employees' bald statement, StarHub will donate $46,000 from the StarHub Sparks Fund, or $1,000 for each of the 46 employees who shaved at the satellite event. This is in addition to the $20,000 in online donations raised by well-wishers at the time of the event. Supporters can continue to make online donations until 30 September 2013.

One of the seven female shavees, Ms Michelle Yap from Frontline Training, shaved her head in memory of her late father who suffered from prostate cancer and to support her best friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer.

My father lost his hair due to the chemotherapy and I have been shaving my head since to honour my memory of him, shared Ms Yap. And I also want to let my best friend and all children with cancer know that they are not alone. Let's grow our hair back together!

Another female shavee, Ms Wong Yen Yen from StarHub's SHINE division, hopes to comfort and inspire the children with another message: It is not the number or amount of hair on our heads that matter; it is who we are inside that counts.

Ms Celine Ho from StarHub's Customer Service Centre shaved her head in support of her six year-old son Kye Feng, who had just been discharged after a successful bone marrow transplant and who is now on the road to recovery from leukaemia.

While many people may feel shaken upon learning that they or their loved ones are ill, having cancer is not the end of the world. I want the children and their families to know that there is still hope, said Ms Ho.

Those who are interested in supporting StarHub's shaving efforts can make an online donation at http://www.hairforhope.org.sg/index.php?/shavee/sdetails/17.

LINK:	http://www.starhub.com/content/corporate/newsroom/2013/05/starhubbers-...
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