Call it a grand expression.
Call it a wonderful gesture.
Whatever you do, call it thankful.
Because the mural of Wen Heui Fan, 35, a Malaysian artist who traveled last week across the Pacific Ocean to paint in Edmonds, materialized only after Fan survived leukemia, and only after he obtained the help of the Edmonds-based Max Foundation, and Fan is certainly thankful.
The Max Foundation works with leukemia patients worldwide, providing medication and offering support to patients who need it.
“They saved my life,” Fan said Oct. 22. “My whole family is appreciative.”
After he was diagnosed at age 29, the Max Foundation gave him free medication that he otherwise could not have afforded, Fan said. They helped bring light to what was otherwise a dark and depressing situation, he said.
Fan is one of 15 artists featured in a book called “Colors of Hope: Expressions from cancer survivors around the world” that the Max Foundation published earlier this year.
When the Max Foundation was looking for a way to raise its profile here in Edmonds, it asked Fan to paint a mural inside the Aegis of Edmonds, an assisted living and memory care community near Stevens Hospital.
The foundation has operated quietly from Edmonds for 11 years. It helps 19,000 patients annually around the world, officials said.
Fan painted a 17-foot by 7-foot mural titled “Life, Low and Peak” in Aegis’ memory care wing. The wing is home to Aegis’ most fragile patients, said Nancy Talbott, the activities director.
“These are the forgotten people. These are the people nobody comes to see,” Talbott said. “It is just amazing that he hears their story and he comes.”
Talbott and Nataliya Semez, the Max Foundation’s development director, helped arrange Fan’s mural.
Fan’s desire to give is characteristic of Max Foundation patients, Semez said.
“Fan knows what it is like to come back (from an illness) and make a difference,” she said. “They all want to give back. That’s what they want to do.”
Reporter Chris Fyall: 425-673-6525 or cfyall@heraldnet.com
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