Kindness and Leading Light award for May
View(s):May Benjamin began working with the cancer support organisation Mithuruwela after she lost her younger sister to cancer. “The agony a family faces when a loved one has cancer” led her to continue her work, helping caregivers, family members and patients over many years at Shanthi Nivasa and Shanthi Sevana, the transit home and cancer hospice.
May Benjamin
She had never expected any recognition for her work so it came as a tremendous surprise for 82-year-old May when she was announced as one of the 50 Leading Lights in the Asia Pacific and honoured with the Kindness and Leading Light award last month.
“I’m happy to get the award but I don’t know if I deserve it – I’m a simple person,” she smiles, adding that she has been helping cancer patients and their families because she believes in her heart that she should do this work.
“By placing a spotlight on phenomenal leaders who are harnessing the power of kindness to make a significant impact and to effect positive change, we collectively place kindness at the centre of the leadership debate. Together, we encourage the leaders of today and tomorrow – no matter what their role or background – to #leadwith kindness, because when kindness is the currency, we can all be millionaires,” Founder, Kindness & Leadership Leading Lights Pinky Lilani, CBE, said in a press release announcing the awards which is now in its 4th year.
Born in Namunukulla on Tonacombe Estate, May schooled at Girls’ High School, Badulla. She was one in a family of four girls, her father being a doctor. She moved to Colombo for work and spent a brief spell in the UK before returning to Sri Lanka.
Equally fluent in all three languages she says it’s helpful to be able to speak easily to people from all over the country who come to Colombo seeking treatment for cancer, many of them lost in the processes and trials they face in the city.
Her parents were devout Christians and May says her strong faith in God has sustained her throughout her life, for she takes all her problems to Him while giving thanks for all the blessings she has received. May is a longtime chorister at the Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour where she has been worshipping for many years.
Among the other Sri Lankan awardees are Bathiya Jayakody, Dheeshana Ameresekere, Farida Lukmanjee, Francis Richard de Zoysa, Prashan de Visser, Rosanna Flamer Caldera and Santush Weeraman.
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