COMMENT | A week after the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, The Sun launched a campaign to raise funds for rehabilitation purposes. Because other newspapers had already collected millions for victims in the north – Penang and Kedah, the management decided that we should focus on two specific areas – Sri Lanka and Acheh.

We were not going to hand over cash collections but the money would be used to buy necessities to get them back on their feet. They needed instant medical care, clothes and food. To cut a long story short, on Jan 6, 2005, photographer Raj Kumar Soman and I landed at the Colombo airport carrying medical equipment including diagnostic sets and defibrillators. These would be used by volunteer doctors and paramedics who were already there.

But the affected areas were in the north – about 200km away. That night we touched ...