About Us

He initiated the campaign by traveling tirelessly on road trips seven days a week to give endless talks for health education and to perform free lab tests and vaccination across the country. His next plan was to open the first clinic which would be the nucleus for expansion through primary care providers in rural areas. The strategy was to set up the clinics throughout Myanmar so that early detection, vaccination and treatment could be covered in every corner. The unyielding quest for the eradication of viral hepatitis to eliminate preventable causes of hepatocellular carcinoma turned into an unexpected cruel fate in January 2016. A nonsmoking Saya Than was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of lung stage IV out of blue. Why? Why at this age? Why this lethal disease? Why at this stage of the disease? Upon learning of his fatal diagnosis, he only remarked in a calm manner, “This is my final year.” He bravely dealt with the deadly disease at an advanced stage. One day he was leading the fight against liver cancer, the next he was ambushed by lung cancer. One day he was a healer treating and comforting the dying patients, the next he was a dying patient fighting for his life. He endured through the grizzly treatment as any other patients with malignancy would. Pain. Panting. Pyrexia. Prostration. He never complained a bit. Instead, he felt sorry for those who took care of him and comforted him. To quote Samuel Beckett, “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” He was resolved to survive one more day so that he could help the patients and the poor one more day. At the beginning of the fight while taking Gefitinib, he tried to go for a retreat at the meditation center. When the disease progressed with bouts of hemoptysis and pneumonia as Gefitinib failed in April, he went on to Crizotinib. When he felt a bit of “improvement,” it was a break in the progression instead; yet, he still returned to the clinic and saw patients three days a week. The cancer never relented its attacks. He never stopped fighting. He asked for systemic chemotherapy (Premetrexed and Carboplatin) when Crizotinib failed. Two days prior to his last breath, he was barely able to whisper as his right lung collapsed from the tumor and filled with recurrent effusion. With a breeze of air, he acknowledged the merits of his loved ones with “Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu.” On his death bed, he asked Dr. Ye Win Maung, who had been taking care of Saya Than as if he was his own father, “How is the Liver Foundation doing? How much does it cost for the treatment of each Hep B patient per month?” On August 2nd, 2016, Professor Than Sitt passed away.Dr. Than Sitt was a humble one-eyed man with a huge ambition and a far-sighted vision. He was a people’s person. He was a doctors’ doctor. He was a teachers’ teacher. He was a hero for the heroes who are in the profession of taking care of the sick. The ill fate took away his body but not his spirit. His body had reduced to ash due to one terrible malignancy, but his vision and mission to conquer the other terrible malignancy will live on. Hero begets heroes. He inspired leaders and foot soldiers in the fight for preventable diseases. He laid a foundation and formatted the pathway for the Liver Foundation to continue the fight. He alarmed us to a wakeup call to celebrate life, to learn and practice Dharma, and to cherish the service to humanity. We all are travelers with one destiny. We all have our choices to make and priorities to set. I would like to share a quote by Sayamagyi Professor Hnin Yee: “[It] is surprising that more of us don’t devote our lives, or at least some portion of our time, to serving people in need. We don’t have to wait for a tragedy to come together, as a community or a nation, and offer ourselves to the world in service. Sometimes it’s easier, of course, to respond to an event that has just happened rather than to ongoing problems like homelessness, poverty, and illness. But the truth of this world is that there is always someone in need of our best efforts to rally a group of helpers and healers. Maybe we feel discouraged because these smaller acts and gestures don’t generate the same kind of energy and attention from other people as heroic acts in the face of immediate disaster, and perhaps an effort to change this is one way to change the world. The more we promote, applaud, and actively inspire humanitarian efforts in the world, the more others will be drawn to this kind of work. We might pay a little less attention to sports and celebrity gossip and a little more attention to those everyday heroes who devote their lives to alleviating suffering. The more attention we pay, the more we will inspire others and ourselves to be of service in a world that greatly needs our attention.”

The vision of Dr. Than Sitt will continue to be an unwavering mission. His dream of eradicating the viral hepatitis will be materialized by the believers and achievers. The opening of the first clinic, the Than-Sitt Charity Clinic, has been initiated under the leadership of Dr. Khin Pyone Kyi, the president of Myanmar Liver Foundation. He whispered the last call. Let’s answer the call of our duty.