Singapore's fight against cancer has received a shot in the arm with the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) announcing yesterday that it would dedicate some of its fund-raising expertise to tackle the dreaded disease, which kills more than 11 people here every day.

The NKF Cancer Fund will pay for public education, screening programmes and research. Specific programmes and fund-raising activities will be announced within the next two weeks.

Set up in 1969, NKF is the world's largest not-for-profit dialysis provider, according to its website. Last year alone, its fund-raising programmes raised approximately $68 million.

Announcing the cancer fund's launch yesterday, NKF chief executive officer T.T. Durai said it was 'changing course' after 35 years to tackle 'one of the most serious ailments in this country'.

But current programmes will not be affected.

The fund is being set up in collaboration with the National Cancer Centre and The Cancer Institute, two health-care institutes on the front line of Singapore's anti-cancer war. Doctors from both institutes will advise the NKF on which cancer projects to be funded.

National Cancer Centre director Soo Khee Chee said the fund was likely to be used initially for education and screening programmes, and eventually for cancer research. Highlighting the need for education programmes targeted at specific groups, The Cancer Institute director John Wong noted how - though everyone knew smoking could cause cancer - more young professional women were smoking here.

Research, particularly into cancers common in Singapore, was another important area the fund could support, said Professor Wong. Studies had shown, for instance, that lung cancer rates were high even among Asian women who did not smoke. More research was needed to find out exactly why.

Also, though stomach, liver and nasopharyngeal cancer rates here are higher than in the West, no one knows why. 'We can't expect other countries to provide answers. It's up to us to find out why,' said Prof Wong. He and Prof Soo are co-chairmen of the cancer fund's medical advisory board, which will recommend to the NKF programmes that the fund can support.

Cancer patients such as Madam Wong Siew Kwan, 58, are happy that NKF is throwing its weight behind cancer education.

The housewife, whose father too had cancer, ignored abdominal pains for months in 1987 before being diagnosed with cervical cancer. 'My father died of colon cancer because the disease was discovered late,' she said. 'By the time I sought help, my cancer was already in the second stage. I'm lucky I survived.'

And though those with a family history of cancer need to be extra vigilant, she said her 21-year-old son was already a heavy smoker. 'Prevention programmes should definitely be targeted at the young,' she said. 'I worry for my son.'