Appealing to the public for funds usually results in a heartwarming deluge of well-wishes and donations. We say usually, because one particular case has proven to be an exception.

An on-going charity appeal for a cancer patient has already resulted in three police reports made, and we break down the entire saga for you:

Plea for a cancer patient

On June 1, Vivian Pan, founder of Single Parent Support Group, sent out a plea for donations on behalf of her friend, who she claims is a single mother diagnosed with stage two cervical cancer.

Pan had found out about her friend's condition when she received a personal message from said friend, who asked if she could exchange three big tins of Milo for S$40 worth of NTUC vouchers:

The doctors say it is too late to remove the patient's ovary, and she will need to undergo chemotherapy.

The patient has two children, both in primary school.

Pan repeatedly emphasised that her friend is a good mother, and that S$1 is all she needs from each of her fellow Singaporeans.

And she even questioned the injustice of good people getting stricken with cancer, and proceeds to juxtapose people who climb trees and pluck soursop with animal abusers as bad people:

Why does good people kana cancer. Why are you so unfair, god. Why bad people, those whom climb trees and pluck soursops, those abuse animals all never kana cancer.

But nonetheless, Pan's heartfelt plea garnered almost 1,500 shares and more than 800 comments, most offering financial assistance.

Read her full post below:

A potential donor casts suspicions on the appeal 

However, one of the potential donors called Jazz Yew got suspicious after her donations of food rations was rejected.

Her post (made on June 3) raises several points:

1) It is surprising that a person who really needs help would reject it when it comes in the form of food rations and not money.

2) Pan refuses to let Yew meet the patient, claiming that it would add to the patient's stress. However, the media was allowed to interview her.

3) Pan does not reveal account number, but instead asks donors to personal message (PM) her for the information.

4) Pan got defensive when questioned further about the case (see screenshots below), even name-dropping Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long and members of the parliament as personal back-ups.

5) Pan asked Yew to speak to her lawyer, but when asked for her lawyer's contact, continuously evades the question.

More than two dozen screenshots of her conversation with Pan were put up in the post.

Unfortunately, the conversation slipped into the territory of "who has more experience helping people".

Read her full post below:

Three police reports have been made

Among the flurry of accusations, three police reports have been made.

The first is by Pan herself, who claims a certain Romeo Chesser has been using the name of the Single Parents Support Group to collect funds for himself.

Although this is seemingly unrelated, Pan discloses in the report that she has collected S$4,000 so far for the single mum.

Her post is here:

The second police report is by a completely unrelated user called Terrence Vestor Yang, who claims to have made a report to Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth (MCCY), as Pan had failed to account for the funds collected:

One should note that it is dated in the future, and may perhaps boil down to clumsy fingers.

The third report was made by a Christina Wong, who is a single mother who may or may not have benefited from Pan's foundation before (as it is not clear from their conversation).

It was also confirmed that the account number that the funds were directed to was Pan's personal account, and not the patient's account.

Wong has demanded for a public apology.

Her post is here:

 Plot twist: Lianhe Wanbao runs a story on cancer-stricken mum and Pan 

According to the Chinese daily, the patient is 33-year-old Feng Zhi Lin, who works as a packer. She had been surviving on a salary of S$800+ a month prior to her cancer diagnosis.

Feng's parents abandoned her when she was just two years old, and she was bought up by her maternal grandmother. Her husband is a drug addict who has been in and out of jail since they got married when she was 21 years old.

While her medical expenses can be mitigated by government aids, Feng remains concerned about her family's daily expenses.

Wanbao reports that the patient initially did not have a bank account, and thus Pan had to use her personal account instead.

To dispel any doubts, Pan personally donated S$500 to start an account for the patient.

End note

It is likely that Pan's trusting nature and naivety caused her to overlook the fact that her handling donations on behalf of others might not reflect well on her, especially when a sizeable amount of money is involved.

Now that we have learnt that transparency is crucial, one other burning question remains:

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