Local lifestyle influencer Melissa Koh not seeking donations to cover her late son’s S$700K hospital bills

SINGAPORE: Local influencer Melissa Koh announced last April 7 that her second son, Asher Matthais Chen, had passed away. Asher was born with a congenital heart condition, and he needed open heart surgeries even at an early age. 

Although Melissa, together with her husband, James Chen, were thankful for the financial help from others, she stated that they would not be fundraising or asking for any donations again. 

She declared: “Please support us through other means instead. We’ll be working our hardest to pay the bills over the years and we’re thankful for any work opportunities that come our way.” 

Last April, Melissa’s friend, Daryl Aiden Yow, conducted a crowdfunding initiative to raise money for Asher’s high hospitalisation fees. He hoped to raise a total amount of S$20,000 during that time. 

Daryl said: “I feel it in my gut that it is the right thing to do. And if I receive backlash, so be it.” The fundraiser was able to gather more than S$18,000. 

However, Melissa and James had never intended to gather funds from others for Asher’s hospital bills. She is thankful to those who participated in the fundraiser and stated that she had received the gathered amount from Daryl. 

She stated in her IG: “We mentioned to him [Daryl] when he visited us at the wake that we were not keen to fundraise but he went ahead with it, out of the goodness of his heart, as he really felt like he couldn’t sit back and ‘do nothing’… If you had donated, thank you for your generosity. I would like to reassure you that the entire amount collected will be going to Asher’s hospitalisation bills, and not used for anything else.” 

Melissa revealed that the bill for Asher’s last hospital bills amounted to S$400,000 to S$500,000, primarily because he was on Extracorporeal Life Support (ECMO) for a month. They also have an outstanding bill of S$200,000 estimated for Asher’s previous hospital fees.  

She added: “For Asher, the answer was straight for James and I. We would do everything in our capacity to give Asher our best. We knew that the bills would be significant but we both agreed to bear it, entirely on ourselves.”