By CASEY NEILL
RICHARD Lim’s family had been all but wiped out when he fled Cambodia.
After enduring years of torture and starvation in refugee camps he escaped to Australia in 1980 – and soon found a new family.
For two years he attended high school classes from 8.30am to 3.30pm and worked from 4pm to 12.30pm to support himself, his brother and sister.
He went on to pharmacy school and in 1991 opened Lim’s Pharmacy in Springvale.
“All my customers are like my family,” he told the Star.
Last week his pharmacy took out this year’s Pharmacy of the Year award and the community engagement category in the national Quality Care Pharmacy Program awards.
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia honour was announced at the Australian Pharmacy Professional conference (APP) on the Gold Coast.
“We are very honoured and thankful to all those people and organisations that believed in us and encouraged us to enter,” Mr Lim said.
“From our very early days we have engaged with the different cultural centres as a way of ensuring people in our community have access to information and health care.
“This engagement helps us to understand the needs of our patients and drives our innovation.”
He’s received well-wishes from the community, which he’s watched grow and thrive during his business’s 21 years.
“I feel old every time I see them,” he laughed.
“We have a good relationship with our customers.
“We feel so great. We didn’t really expect to win. Everyone’s so excited.”
The win was the culmination of years of dedication and hard work and was miles from Mr Lim’s beginnings.
“It’s an unimaginable story I still can’t comprehend myself,” he said.
When his parents, brother, sister and extended family members were killed under Pol Pot’s rule, he decided to flee to Australia with his two remaining siblings, with sponsorship from his dad’s niece.
It took three life-threatening attempts to finally reach freedom in Thailand.
“The Thai soldiers were cruel. They shot everybody that came across the border,” he said.
Mr Lim had studied pharmacy in Cambodia for two years but had to start from scratch in Australia, with his high school certificate.
He’d grown up speaking French but picking up some English during his time in refugee camps gave him a head start with the language of his new home, where he hit the ground running.
He formed the Cambodian Youth Association in 1981, is actively involved with various cultural communities, regularly donates to charities, and even handed Springvale Rise Primary School $2000 so 10 underprivileged children could go on school camp.
“I’m on the go all the time,” he said.
“I have to give back to those multicultural societies.
“I look after customers properly. I look after all the community.”
