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200 runners, 200 hours, 2,000km: Relay Majulah gathers Singaporeans from all walks of life to raise $1M

Relay Majulah participants Kuo Si Min (left) and Raymond Howe. Kuo recovered from a serious bus accident to run in half-marathons, while Howe is a two-time cancer survivor who has frequently helped to raise funds for charity by taking part in triathlons. (PHOTOS: Relay Majulah)
Relay Majulah participants Kuo Si Min (left) and Raymond Howe. Kuo recovered from a serious bus accident to run in half-marathons, while Howe is a two-time cancer survivor who has frequently helped to raise funds for charity by taking part in triathlons. (PHOTOS: Relay Majulah)

SINGAPORE — They come from all walks of life, some of them with their personal stories of triumph over adversity. And these 200 runners are taking on the challenge of completing a running relay across 2,000 kilometres in Singapore in 200 hours – in time to make it for Mediacorp’s President’s Star Charity event on 10 November.

Called Relay Majulah, this special relay – inaugurated to commemorate the Singapore Bicentennial year – seeks to raise $1 million for the 67 charity organisations backed by the President’s Challenge fundraising series.

From 2 November, the runners will run back and forth between the Singapore Sports Hub and Safra Yishun to rack up 2,000km by 10 November – at an average speed of 10km per hour – in order for the final relay participant, Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin, to run into the President’s Star Charity show at the Mediacorp campus to hand the relay baton to President Halimah Yacob.

It is an ambitious project with enormous physical – and logistical – challenges, but the organisers and participants are tackling each of their obstacles with equally immense conviction that the grounds-up initiative is a worthwhile undertaking.

Ordinary people in grounds-up initiative

The participants are gathered via word of mouth earlier this year, with the Relay Majulah organisers hoping to get a diverse and inclusive group with people from all walks of life.

There are well-known Singaporeans in the mix, such as former national footballers Nazri Nasir and Aleksandar Duric, Mediacorp presenters Glenda Chong and Jeffrey Low, as well as Members of Parliament Teo Ser Luck and Lim Wee Kiak.

The majority are ordinary people who are either passionate about running, or eager to spread a little kindness to the society. Some have disabilities, some are coping with illnesses, and some have recovered from accidents; all want to do their part in raising $5,000 each for Relay Majulah.

For Kuo Si Min, 29, the data analyst/epidemiologist is fortunate to still be able to run regularly, after a serious accident in 2010 left her with a fractured skull and pelvis.

“I was jogging at night and I was knocked down by a bus while crossing a road,” she told Yahoo News Singapore in an interview earlier this month. “The injuries were so serious that I was bedridden for three months, and I lost part of my skull, which had to be formed back with titanium implants.”

Doctors gave her only about a 30 per cent chance of survival, yet Kuo managed to pull through after nearly a year of recovery and rehabilitation. An avid athlete who had taken part in sports like dragonboating in her school days, she even went against the doctors’ advice to resume running, eventually recovering well enough take part in half-marathons.

Doctors gave Kuo Si Min a 30 per cent chance of survival after a bus crashed into her, but she recovered well enough to take part in half-marathons. (PHOTO: Relay Majulah)
Doctors gave Kuo Si Min a 30 per cent chance of survival after a bus crashed into her, but she recovered well enough to take part in half-marathons. (PHOTO: Relay Majulah)

“After the accident, I think I treasured every day more, because life is so unpredictable. You don’t know what might happen at any time,” she said.

“I was quite lucky to have support from my friends and family, as well access to resources that helped me recover. Others don’t have the same benefit and, compared to myself, their struggles are much greater. So if we can do a bit to help them by doing something that we like, then why not?”

Cancer fails to stop fundraising efforts

While Kuo’s harrowing life experience is in the past, hotel manager Raymond Howe’s battle with cancer resumed in 2016, after the 56-year-old conquered his first brush with the illness 17 years ago.

“I was initially diagnosed with malignant skin cancer, which spread to my brain and left lung,” he told Yahoo News Singapore. “It was a really depressing period as I found it hard to cope with the effects of chemotherapy. I was very ambitious in my career then, and it all came crashing down.”

He even pondered suicide, but was eventually inspired by the autobiography of the now-disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, who overcame testicular cancer and set up the Livestrong Foundation to support people affected by cancer.

Charity became the focus of Howe’s subsequent life after cancer. An avid swimmer since his younger days, he began taking up cycling and running in order to take part in triathlons. At age 44, he did his first Olympic-distance triathlon event in Miami, and even though he finished last on a bicycle bought from Walmart just two days before the race, he was inspired by the encouragement of the supporters to continue in his endeavour.

Despite battling with cancer twice, hotel manager Raymond Howe continues to take part in Ironman 70.3 races and marathons, helping to raise funds for charity whenever he can. (PHOTO: Relay Majulah)
Despite battling with cancer twice, hotel manager Raymond Howe continues to take part in Ironman 70.3 races and marathons, helping to raise funds for charity whenever he can. (PHOTO: Relay Majulah)

Since then, he has progressed to numerous Ironman 70.3 races and marathons, and has actively raised funds for all kinds of charity. When Relay Majulah organisers invited him to join the event, he felt a little embarrassed to ask his friends for donations.

“I had already asked them to donate to other charities four times this year,” he said with a laugh. “I was worried that they might think that I’m asking for their money too many times. But they were so kind, I managed to hit $5,000 in two weeks.”

Howe has continued his charity and sporting endeavours despite suffering a relapse of his cancer, this time in the thyroid. He was much more mentally prepared, and did not descend into despair this time around even as the cancer spread to his neck.

“I was selfish and arrogant in the past, but my brushes with cancer have made me a different person. My message is that every one of us can do our part in helping others in need. I always tell my friends, just forgo a $6 coffee for a few days, and they can benefit the lives of others,” he said.

Team effort to complete gruelling relay

Howe’s and Kuo’s life experiences are but two of the many stories of triumphs over adversity among the 200 participants of Relay Majulah. There is a runner with Down’s Syndrome, another who is paralysed in both legs but “runs” via a hand-cycle, and another who is visually handicapped.

On average, each participant runs a 10km leg. Some less able-bodied ones will run a shorter distance, and some of the fitter runners – such as Kuo – will take on 20km legs.

And, since there is a time limit of 200 hours to complete the 2,000km relay, the faster and more experienced runners may have to be counted on to make up for the slower runners’ timings.

CNA news presenter Chong, who will be running a 10km leg from East Coast Park to Marina Barrage on the night of 8 November, is training hard to hit the ideal one-hour mark to complete her run.

“I’m not an avid runner, and every time I hit the 5km mark during training, I feel like giving up, and I have to keep telling myself that I’ll be able to rest later, to push myself through the 10km,” she told Yahoo News Singapore during a media conference on the President’s Star Charity show earlier this month.

“It takes a lot of mental discipline, but I really don’t want to burden other runners to make up for my run time.”

Some of the Relay Majulah participants and organisers during a media conference for the event. (PHOTO: Relay Majulah)
Some of the Relay Majulah participants and organisers during a media conference for the event. (PHOTO: Relay Majulah)

A team effort with contributions from every runner – such is the essence of a running relay which organisers hope each participant can take away from their physical exertions and fundraising drives.

“The message is that you are not alone,” said Relay Majulah co-chairman Ong Tze Boon, whose father – the late former President Ong Teng Cheong – inaugurated the President’s Star Charity show in 1994.

“As a society, if we pull ourselves together for the better of everyone, we can make it happen. If this relay can exemplify or illuminate such capabilities, then we can move a bit closer to where we want to be as a nation.”

More details on the relay can be found on the Relay Majulah website, where there are links to each runner’s Giving.sg profiles should the public wish to donate to the event.

Details on the President’s Challenge can be found on its official website. The public are encouraged to donate to the beneficiaries under the President’s Challenge via online or these three telephone numbers: 1900-1128821 (for $10 donation), 1900-1128822 (for $50 donation) and 1900-1128823 (for $100 donation).

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