Malaysia’s first oncologist dies

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's first oncologist, founder member and president of the National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM) Datuk Dr S.K. Dharmalingam passed away on Monday. He was 77.
Dr Dharmalingam, remembered by many for pioneering cancer treatment in Malaysia, suffered a heart attack in March and was in a coma until his death.
NCSM vice-president Anthony Skelchy, who had worked with Dr Dharmalingam for 40 years, said: “He is synonymous with the NCSM. From nothing, the NCSM now has a Cancer Treatment Centre in Tung Shin Hospital, Women's Cancer Detection Clinic, the Nuclear Medicine Centre and a home for children with cancer.”
“He left a wonderful legacy,” he said.
Head of the Malaysian Oncological Society Dr Gucharan Singh said when Dr Dharmalingam headed the Hospital Kuala Lumpur radiotherapy/ oncology department from 1962 until he retired in 1982, the hospital was on the select list for training of the Royal College of Radiology of Britain.
He established the first Mammography Screening Centre in South-East Asia and introduced uterine cancer screening.
Dr Dharmalingam was also founder president of the Malaysian Oncology Society, vice-president of the Asian-Oceanian Clinical Oncology Society and founder president of the Malaysian Radiological Society.