Ding Lik Kiu was born into an extremely poor family in Sibu, Sarawak in 1921, 10 years after the Foochow immigrants established their settlement in Sibu. Led by Wong Nai Siong, the Foochow agriculturalists were given the worst of peat swamp areas to plant rice in 1901. They were considered "invited guests" of the Rajah Brooke who would create a rice bowl for Sarawak.
His mother died young and his father, in poor health, asked for help from Rev James Hoover and his wife Mary Hoover to harbour the young boy. He thus became a "mission" boy, and later a foster son of Mary Hoover.
His birth place was Sg. Bidut and the Dings were a large extended family.
Being very bright, Lik Kiu was sent to Singapore to study. Soon he was on his way to the USA. After his training as a medical doctor, he returned to Sarawak to help establish Christ Hospital together with Dr. H Brewster in 1958.
He returned to the US for a while but decided to settle down in Hong Kong in 1961, where his wife came from.
He helped drug addicts, men living in cage homes and other disadvantaged groups.
The prominent physician, widely known as a reform-minded professional alongside urban councillors Elsie Tu and Brook Bernacchi in the 1960s and 1970s, was a champion of the underdog. He was an advocate for methadone treatment for drug addicts. In 1971, a pilot project led by Dr Ding demonstrated the effect of reducing unemployment and criminality among drug addicts who received methadone treatment. A methadone outpatient programme was implemented in 1972 by the then Medical and Health Department. Dr Ding was a prime mover in the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. In 1973, he blamed endemic corruption for Hong Kong's serious drug problem. "One of the roots of the severity of the drug problem is corruption." "If we described Martin Lee as the 'father of democracy' in Hong Kong, Dr Ding should be remembered as the 'grandfather of democracy'," Mr Ho said.
Dr Ding, who emigrated to San Francisco in 1990, died of pneumonia.
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