{"entity":{"id":"li-ka-shing","kind":"person","name":"Li Ka-shing","aka":[],"tldr":"Since 1980 he has put more than HK$30 billion into his foundation; its Heart of Gold programme gave free hospice care to tens of thousands of poor terminal cancer patients, and its gift built the Cambridge centre that houses Cancer Research UK's institute there.","summary":"Li Ka-shing built Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa into one of Asia's largest business groups and founded the Li Ka Shing Foundation in 1980, which states that he has invested over HK$30 billion in it, more than 80% of it in mainland China and Hong Kong. Its cornerstone is Shantou University, founded in 1981 and supported with HK$12 billion, whose medical college trains doctors for southern China. Its Heart of Gold hospice programme in Hong Kong ran from 2007 to 2020 through ten centres and served over 38,000 low-income terminal cancer patients and their families with palliative care, mental and spiritual support, alongside the foundation's national hospice network in mainland hospitals. In Cambridge, the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute is housed in the Li Ka Shing Centre on Robinson Way, built with the foundation's gift. Few donors have funded both the end of cancer care and its research front.","asOf":"2026-09-10","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Ka-shing","links":[{"label":"Li Ka Shing Foundation","url":"https://www.lksf.org/"},{"label":"Heart of Gold hospice programme","url":"https://www.lksf.org/heart-of-gold/"},{"label":"CRUK Cambridge Institute: about us","url":"https://www.cruk.cam.ac.uk/about-us"}],"tags":["hero","donor"],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":["palliative-care"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["li-ka-shing-foundation","cruk-cambridge-centre"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-palliative","b-global-access","b-funding-allocation"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Hong Kong entrepreneur whose foundation funded free hospice care for poor cancer patients and the building that houses the CRUK Cambridge Institute","specialisms":["Hospice and palliative care","Medical education in China","Cancer research buildings"],"profiles":[],"papers":[]},"route":"/people/li-ka-shing/","neighbours":{"technology":[{"id":"palliative-care","kind":"technology","name":"Early integrated palliative care","route":"/technologies/palliative-care/"}],"institution":[{"id":"cruk-cambridge-centre","kind":"institution","name":"Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre / CRUK Cambridge Institute","route":"/institutions/cruk-cambridge-centre/"},{"id":"li-ka-shing-foundation","kind":"institution","name":"Li Ka Shing Foundation","route":"/institutions/li-ka-shing-foundation/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-funding-allocation","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Funding follows fashion, not burden","route":"/bottlenecks/b-funding-allocation/"},{"id":"b-global-access","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Most of the world has almost no cancer care","route":"/bottlenecks/b-global-access/"},{"id":"b-palliative","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Pain relief and palliative care are unavailable to most","route":"/bottlenecks/b-palliative/"}]}}