DR. MAK WING LAI TONY

Biography

Dr. Tony WL Mak graduated from Fung Kai No.1 Secondary School (Fung Kai) in 1979. He is currently the Consultant of the Toxicology Reference Laboratory of the Hospital Authority. He has held various hospital management positions, such as the Chief of Service, the Deputy Hospital Chief Executive, the Service Director (Quality & Safety) and he is going to retire soon.

Dr. Mak is a toxicology expert and he has participated in the research, treatment and surveillance of different kinds of poisoning cases, including the melamine-tainted milk product incident, the lead-contaminated drinking water incident, drug driving, detection and control of novel psychotrophic substances, herbal poisoning and plant-related poisoning.

Dr. Mak has published over 100 articles in international journals. Under his leadership, “The Atlas of Poisonous Plants in Hong Kong” was published by the Hospital Authority Toxicology Reference Laboratory and is now obtainable at https://www3.ha.org.hk/toxicplant/hk/index.html and also in our school library. Dr. Mak shares with us his ups and downs in his life.

His Story

Like many children at that time, I was born in Guangdong and then moved to Hong Kong. I studied in a primary school in a village in the New Territories. My parents were too busy earning a living and thus I was left unattended most of the time.

After school, I spent my spare time wandering in the countryside, swimming in the rivers, catching crickets, collecting birds’ eggs, wrecking beehives, picking wild fruits… My childhood was happy, except that I had overlooked my study.

With twists and turns, I enrolled in Fung Kai. My long-neglected English abilities soon caught up with me. In Secondary two, I got a “splendid” result: I got three noughts in English dictation in two mid-term exams and the final exam! I had to repeat the class but I did not give up. I chose to face it rather than to shrink from it.

It was indeed a trauma to me for having to repeat the class. Though I put up an arrogant front, it was just a guise to hide my sense of inferiority. Nevertheless, repeating the class gave me a chance to grow more than other fellow classmates, slowly building up my self-confidence and a subtly changing my mindset. I found that difficult times could be overcome by years of accumulated endeavours.

After graduation from Fung Kai, I lucked into the Medical School of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Oh wait, luck had nothing to do with it. The truth was that I had studied very hard, at least 8 hours every day, for two years before the university entrance examination took place. I definitely paid off all of my “study debt” from my childhood!

The Medical School demanded even more of my English abilities. For instance, there are 270 bones in a human body and each of them has its own name, add to that the muscles, blood vessels, nerves, medicines and diseases…

Professors came from all over the world. They taught in English with different accents. Being brought up in a CMI (Chinese Medium-of-Instruction) school, I was defeated by English and became a repeater once again. Language was but one of the challenges during my life in the medical school, but, simply put, I survived them all. These hard times had in turn contributed to the development of my resilience and perseverance in adversity. As a Chinese idiom goes, “Good fortune follows upon disaster”!

How time flies! I am going to retire soon. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the care and guidance of teachers of Fung Kai, where students are never left behind no matter their starting point. Even to this day, decades later, I still keep in touch with my teachers and fellow classmates. I am really grateful for everything that Fung Kai has given me.