An ill little girl named Jessica Doktor, almost three years old, has captured the heart of HSPH student William Tan. Jessica divides her time between her family home and Children’s Hospital in Boston, where she receives cancer treatments. She has shared her Barbie dolls with Tan and stories about her dog, and Tan is happy about the way they are connecting.

"Children tend not to warm up to me very quickly," said Tan.

He added thoughtfully, "Maybe my wheelchair is intimidating."

Tan, a native of Singapore, has been paralyzed since the age of two when he contracted polio because he was not immunized against the disease despite the availability of the vaccine in the country. He has spent most of his life in a wheelchair. Soft-spoken and self-effacing, Tan decided a long time ago to use his disability to help others.

On April 15, Tan will be raising money for Children’s Hospital when he participates in the Boston Marathon as a wheelchair athlete. Tan will be dedicating his race to Jessica and hopes to carry the little girl on his lap when he competes, if her doctors give the go-ahead.

"Maybe she can help cheer me up ‘Heartbreak Hill’," laughed Tan.

Tan, who competed in the Seoul Paralympics and is training for Athens, started wheelchair racing 17 years ago when he was in high school. At the time, sports was a way to make friends outside of his loving and tightly-knit family and to gain needed confidence, he said.

"I was very bitter and angry growing up," Tan admitted. "I thought, ‘Two drops of vaccine would have made such a difference in my life. Why didn’t I have the immunization? Why did I miss it?’ I had an inferiority complex and didn’t want to go out and meet people."

Tan credits a number of people with changing his attitude. His parents, he said, encouraged him to be independent. Later, Tan met a policeman who had been paralyzed by a bullet and had become a wheelchair athlete. The meeting was "transformative," said Tan, who started wheelchair racing, winning several awards.

"Being paralyzed, speed was a phenomenon that I had known nothing about," said Tan.

After two years of accolades, Tan realized, "winning medals, trophies or prize money should not be an end to itself. It should be a means to further goodness and to help people."

In 1987, Tan organized his first fundraising event, circling the track at his high school in Singapore for 16 hours non-stop to raise money for kidney patients who could not afford $4,000 a month for dialysis treatments.

Since then, Tan has been devoted to fundraising for those in need, collecting money for causes in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia and the US. He has skydived, water-skied and sailed to raise money. One odyssey dear to him is when in 1996 he propelled his wheelchair across the breadth of Malaysia, a distance of approximately 500 miles, to raise money for people who needed prosthetics at the hospital that cared for him when he contracted polio. Tan raised $285,000.

"It was such a great feeling to be able to give back to the hospital that had helped me regain my health," said Tan.

It was not the only time Tan crossed a country in his wheelchair. In 1995, he went 700 miles across New Zealand to fundraise for children with disabilities.

Junior Chamber International, USA, an organization of a worldwide federation of young professionals and entrepreneurs working to address global concerns, has recognized Tan for his fundraising, giving him an "Outstanding Young Person of the World Award" in 1997.

Tan credits his efforts to all of his sponsors, without whom his fundraising would not be possible, he said.

"I like to look at it as a team effort between me and the people who donate money," said Tan. "Together, we can help some people who need it."

He is also appreciative of people who help him in other ways. The Sebastian’s Cafeteria staff, for example, plans on helping Tan develop a menu that will aid his training for the marathon.

Tan attends HSPH on a Fulbright Scholarship.

To speak to Tan or to sponsor him in the Boston Marathon, visit his table outside of the Kresge cafeteria Mondays through Fridays, lunchtime, from now until April 12. Or e-mail him at wtan@hsph.harvard.edu.