LG gives awards to doctor and domestic worker for contributions to community

By Kim Hyun-bin

LG Foundation has granted its humanitarian awards to Ko Young-cho, for providing free medical services to people in need for 48 years, and to domestic worker Noh Pan-soon, for donating her life savings to underprivileged members of her local community.

Ko, who is a neurosurgery professor at Konkuk University Medical Center, became a member of the Catholic Student Council in 1973 and since then, has provided free medical services on the outskirts of Seoul each week for underprivileged people who could not afford medical expenses. He has been offering free medical services for 48 years.

In spite of his busy schedule, Ko has made time to provide his services twice a week since 1977, treating more than 15,000 patients. He has treated mostly patients with serious conditions, including brain tumors.

In 2005, one of his patients with hydrocephalus, an accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, did not show up for his regular checkup. That prompted Ko to visit the patient's house and found him unconscious. Ko immediately took the patient to Konkuk University Medical Center to conduct an operation that ended up saving his life.

“On some days I was exhausted from a long surgery session, but I always drove to the medical volunteer site, and once I met and talked to patients, found it joyful to such a point that it washed away my fatigue,” Ko said. “This happiness and value have become the driving forces that have kept bringing me back here for the past 40 years.”

The second LG Foundation humanitarian award was given to Noh Pan-soon, who worked as a domestic worker, a restaurant worker, and a public bath worker. She donated her whole life savings of 430 million won, accumulated through working these jobs for her entire life, to help people in need in her local community.

She gave 330 million won between 2019 to 2020 to underprivileged college students, and an additional 100 million won in April this year to people in need in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province.

“We gave the humanitarian awards to two people who devoted their lives to helping others in need, and hope their spirit can be well recognized by the public through the award,” an LG official said.