Shunned in life and in death

TNP PHOTO: Gavin Foo

Mr Tommy Yu Kee Ping (above) tries to return some dignity to the deceased.

The 46-year-old undertaker has performed funerals for more than seven HIV patients, who had "no family members to send them off", over the last decade or so.

Sometimes, when no one claimed the body, social workers would alert him to it and he would perform the funeral, funded by Love & Unity Volunteers Establishment, a charity he set up to provide funeral rites to the needy.

Mr Yu said: "Since no one wants to be near such patients even after they die, I will give them their last ride home."