Hong Kong Everest conqueror tells of harrowing climb and desire to push for organ donations
Physiotherapist Elton Ng Chun-ting returns from journey to top of world’s highest mountain, and says all he wants is some good food
A local physiotherapist who on Sunday became only the seventh Hongkonger to have summited Mount Everest said he would like to use publicity surrounding his achievement to promote organ donation.
Speaking at the airport upon his return to Hong Kong on Thursday, 38-year-old Elton Ng Chun-ting told media of a harrowing journey to the top of the world’s highest peak during which he saw climbers struggling for survival.
“When I was on my way to reaching the summit, there were several foreign hikers sitting along the trail, dying,” Ng said, “I felt so powerless – I could not stop to help them as I had no extra oxygen bottles.
“There was no way to rescue those people high up on Everest, but I was thinking, could I do something to help people down in my home city? I decided there and then it would be to promote organ donation.”
All he wanted after arriving back from his epic adventure was some good food, he said.
Ng went to Everest with two organ transplant recipients, Martin Wong Yim-wah and Peter Chan Kwok-ming, who both suffered from kidney disease before receiving the donations.
Wong, a founding chairman of the Hong Kong Transplant Sports Association, said Ng had been a volunteer physiotherapist for his team when he went to Australia to compete in the world transplant Olympics, a multi-sport event occurring every two years that is organised by the World Transplant Games Federation.
