Ang Lai Soon
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Datuk Seri Ang Lai Soon PSD SPMJ PNBS DPMJ AMN PBJ PGBK CStJ FRNS is a Malaysian philanthropist, charity director, social and environmental campaigner, and businessman from Kuching, Sarawak.[1][2] He is the chair, Commander, and founder of St John Ambulance Sarawak branch of the international first aid charity.[3] He is also President and founder of Sarawak's Cheshire Home, encouraging disabled people to move towards independent living.[4] He is a member of the Order of St John as well as holding a wide range of honours and titles.
Ang Lai Soon (later Dato’ Sri Ang Lai Soon) was born in Sarawak. In the years after the Second World War, British officers rented premises from Ang Lai Soon's father, and from their periodicals and newspapers he first learnt about the activities of the St John Ambulance Brigade, as it was then known, and about "the bravery and dedication of the first aiders and brigade members during the war years."[5] In 1971 he began petitioning to launch a Sarawak branch of St John within the now independent Malaysia. Permission was granted and the following year Ang Lai Soon was confirmed as Commissioner. However, over the years, the organisation's activities have declined over the years and now confined only to Kuching and the surrounding areas. The Sarawak Cheshire Home was founded with the goal of "serving the community by caring for as many of the physically handicapped in our community that our facilities can accommodate" and lately supporting "The Zero Reject poIicy ... starting 2019 – to ensure that children with disabilities are no longer rejected from attending primary schools.[6]