Claire Lai, the daughter of jailed British citizen and Hong Kong democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai, has revealed she has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer at the age of 30.
Doctors told Ms Lai the illness had been detected early after she noticed a lump on her neck and began feeling unwell while out running.
She initially received a diagnosis of mumps, but sought a second opinion when the lump remained after five weeks. An ultrasound and biopsy subsequently confirmed the cancer.
“Originally, I was diagnosed with mumps. But mumps is supposed to disappear after two weeks but this lump was still there after five weeks,” she told The Times.
Ms Lai is undergoing chemotherapy and is currently unable to fly. She has not seen her father for more than a year and fears her treatment could limit her ability to campaign internationally on his behalf.
Mr Lai, 78, has spent the past six years in prison and was sentenced to 20 years in December. His son, Sebastien, described the punishment as a “death sentence”.
Mr Lai has been held in solitary confinement for five years and has reportedly been denied medication for diabetes. His family says his nails have fallen off and his teeth are rotting.
Ms Lai said her father had remained stoic through his imprisonment, including periods when he suffered heart and back problems and was too weak to stand. But she said he broke down in tears when he learned of her diagnosis.
“My father, in his six years of imprisonment, he has taken everything in his stride,” she said. “Even when he was ill, when he had heart problems and back problems and was too weak to stand. But that was the one time he really broke down crying.”
She said her father’s encouragement to remain active helped her recognise that something was wrong. “My dad always encouraged me to be sporty so, in a lot of ways, I owe the fact that I found out so quickly to him because it was the fact that my body could do things and suddenly it couldn’t that I knew something was really wrong,” she said.
Ms Lai has been unable to spend time safely in Hong Kong after publicly advocating for her father. She communicates with him by letter, although she has yet to receive a reply to the message she sent after her diagnosis because of delays.
Relatives in Hong Kong, who are allowed to visit Mr Lai for 30 minutes once a week, told him the news instead. “I wish I could have told him myself but I do think that seeing him cry would have probably made me cry and that would have probably not been the most productive conversation,” Ms Lai said.
She also said the prison had begun refusing the family access to Mr Lai’s medical reports this year. “Securing my father’s freedom is both in China’s interest and the UK’s interest. I’m confident the prime minister won’t forget about another British national who is getting older,” she said.
Mr Lai gained British citizenship in 1996, before Hong Kong was handed over to China. He founded Apple Daily, a newspaper known for its criticism of the governments in Hong Kong and Beijing, and was arrested weeks after China introduced its National Security Law for Hong Kong.
He was convicted of conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and of conspiracy to publish seditious articles. Both offences carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Apple Daily was shut down in June 2021 after some of its senior journalists were arrested. Reporters Without Borders ranked Hong Kong 140th out of 180 territories in its 2025 press freedom index.
