Archive for year: 2019

Do you know, there are 17 million people with Cerebral Palsy worldwide?!

Heyooo readers! I hope you have been doing great and working towards making a positive difference in the life of the society, people around you, or even to yourself. Like Cassandra despite her sensory challenge, she is making a positive change to the world.

Next, we are going to learn about this individual who when from a zero to a hero even after being diagnosed from a disorder named, Cerebral Palsy. Cerebral Palsy? What is that? Cerebral Palsy is a group of disorders that affects muscle tone, movement, and motor skills which hinders the body’s ability to move in a coordinated and purposeful way. This disorder is caused by damages to the immature brain as it develops, most often before birth.

But the surprising fact was, the doctors never saw anything wrong in Peter. He was deemed a healthy baby.

Peter is the name of this Zero to Hero, who is now a Singapore team Paralympics soccer player who is playing mainly as a goalkeeper/defender and saved lots of incoming goals to the net. Woohoo, what a SAVIOUR!!

psst… Oliver Kahn, the German national Goalkeeper who won several titles with Bayern München,  the UEFA champions league, the UEFA cup, the intercontinental cup, eight national championships, and six national cups, is Peter’s idol and a role model as a goalkeeper.

Birth

Anyway.. life was as per usual for Peter, but the only downside was that he kept on falling whenever he tried to walk. At the age of 5 years old, Peter’s kindergarten teacher called his parents to give them the option of shifting him out of the current school to another suitable school. This was because he frequently picked fights with his fellow school mates.

But when I asked him why he did that, his answer was, “the students always made fun of my legs and the way I walked and that got me sad and frustrated”. If anyone was in Peter’s “shoes”, they might have reacted that way too. Due to this incident of his issues in the school and his constant falls, his parents decided to check with the doctor about this issue.

After thorough medical checks, the doctor found out that both his legs were severely fractured or broken into fragments, because of constant falls that had to be on the cast. Surprisingly, the doctor also found that he has a neurological disorder, named Cerebral Palsy.

It took Peter 1 year to recover and walk. But during his recovery period, he frequently gets spasm on his entire right side of the body.

After removing his cast, Peter’s 2nd elder brother among his 2 elder brothers, decided to bring him to a street soccer court to play soccer. Or more of getting his younger brother (Peter) to get constant painful hit by the fast-flying ball which is kicked by his friend’s and him (2nd elder brother). Whenever he goes back home after all the bruises from the hit, his Mum will ask him what happened. And for that, Peter will always say a false excuse and get away from it.

Anyway, the purpose of his second brother’s action was, to get Peter’s upper body seasoned by any future whack’s, hit or bully by anyone else. But to think about it, is that the right way? Or is that the best way? Maybe yes, maybe not, it is subjective. But whatever it is, it has led Peter to be a stronger individual now.

Primary School

At 7 years old, Peter was enrolled in the Spastic Children Association for 7 years. Over there he learned skills to survive in the society, like hand motor skills, communication, life skills, etc, with his strict teachers. Through his CCA (Co-Curricular Activities), in track and field and soccer, Peter managed to find new friends. Despite those supportive friends, he also had school mates who chose to pick on him.

They called him ‘disheartening’ names because of his walk which had a limp, pushed him, and even chose to throw his things around.

There was this time when he was walking, few of the boys snatched his bag and started throwing them around at each other, as though playing the game “monkey”. Peter got frustrated and shouted at one of them to stop. Times were even tough when he was struggling to cope during his PSLE period. Unfortunately, he paid more attention on his CCAs as a senior to coach his juniors.

But luckily,

he managed to pass his PSLE with an average aggregate score from the help of his teachers and friends.

Secondary school

 

 

 

 

 

After that, he graduated and got his 1st choice among the 3 choices of school in Queensway Secondary School. But to be able to enter the school officially, he had to go through an official registration during the registration day with the school. But there is something we must take note.

By the time he enrolled in secondary 1, he was already 14 years old. Remember, he studied at Spastic Children Association, for 7 years, which is a year extra from the regular age group of 6 years. The reason was that Peter failed his PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) at his first attempt, hence he had to retake his PSLE at the following year.

During the registration, that intrigued a few parents to look at him and comment things like, “this boy look old”, “Eh, this guy is slow ah”, “he looks stupid”, also, “this guy, definitely cannot cope with his studies one”. His father who overheard one of the comments, when ahead to confront the other parent and even when direct to other teachers in Queensway secondary school to make a complain.

Hmm… I guess it was the lack of awareness and empathy by the parents. Nevertheless, he managed to get enrolled as an NT (Normal Technical) student in the school.

That was when his journey to study in a mainstream school began, and it was not an easy one for Peter. His younger classmates always questioned him about his maturity. He had extra subjects in secondary school which he had to study compared to his time in Spastic Children Association . And he was unable to cope with his mother tongue as it was not taught in his primary school, took a toll out of him. Despite all of that, Peter pushed on.

Furthermore, Peter’s interest in playing soccer never died off since he was young but instead, it grew. Almost every recess (break) time Peter will rush to the “so-called”, street soccer court in the school to play street soccer with his school mates. And almost always, he plays as a goalkeeper during the matches.

He did not do well at first, but his passion in that game allowed him to climb the ropes and become better gradually. Not only him, but the interest in some of his other school mates allowed them to even play with a piece of a crashed bottle, which was a replacement to a soccer ball. What a way to play soccer!

At secondary 2, when his studies were slipping away, Peter joined the free tuition service given by AWWA (Asian Women’s Welfare Association). That helped him to fairly increase his knowledge in his education and kept him just above failing range in his subjects. But it did not stop there, because of his interest in soccer he joined the soccer clinic which was available in AWWA.

A Funny Moment

Back in his secondary school, there was this one funny and embarrassing incident which happened during an event where Peter was playing as a goalkeeper in one of the soccer matches during recess. One of his school mates dribbled the ball towards him to score, and at that moment Peter was determined to prevent the ball from being kicked into the goal post which was at the back of him. After a hard kick, his school mate sends the ball straight towards the goal post.

The determined Peter took a deep breath and took an acute dive towards the fast approaching ball. It must be his constant practice in the court during every recess time, Peter made a tremendous save! But only to realize, in that process he got his pants split. It was an embarrassing but hilarious moment for Peter.

But good news, one of his teachers who will watch over him playing soccer at times, saw his potential and praised him. What a wonderful comeback!

 

 

 

 

 

The serious moment

However, in secondary 4 during the year of his N-level, Peter received a “public caning” in the class by the Discipline Master. This was for punching the class glass window which broke into pieces because of intense anger. This anger was triggered by one of his classmates who criticised his learning ability and comparing his studies. Forming not only a wave of intense anger, but this also made Peter feel low. But what did not help was, the public caning he received, which created only confusion and questions in him on whether he deserved the caning.

To think about it now, was it necessary? Did it solve the problem? Or did it create a positive outcome?

Despite the confusion, Peter put in more effort to pass his N-level and graduate to ITE.

ITE life

Peter managed to enroll himself into the 2nd year of Macpherson Institute of Technical Education (ITE) in the Nitec course of Electrical Instrumentation. Despite missing his 1st intake to be enrolled in the ITE as all the courses he wanted were taken up.

During his first semester, Peter was nearly debarred from the module he was doing because of his poor academic performance. He then decided that he has no available option of failing the module given his age, to get the certificate and the fear of going to the serve the nation early if he deferred his current studies. (Yes, despite Cerebral Palsy he had to go to serve the nation). He strived harder for the right result and adopted the “NEVER GIVE UP” mentality.

Time passed by and it was time for Peter to collect semester 1 result. And you know what, all his hardwork paid off giving him the opportunity to pass that module with a high score. Kudos Peter!

But after that pleasant incident, complacency set in for Peter and he started to go back to his lazy ways. But whatever it was, Peter was mindful to always keep up to education goals. And hence he managed to graduate successfully.

Army life

Not long after he graduated from ITE, he got a letter from MINDEF (Ministry of Defence) Singapore, requesting to serve the National Service like all Singaporean boys in the Army. BMT (Basic Military Training) Kranji camp as a storeman under the transport section, after completing his BMT (Basic Military Training) phase. At first Peter had an intense fear of adapting to the army lifestyle given his condition of a mild Cerebral Palsy. But some people over there were supportive.

 

 

 

 

 

Besides the kind and supportive people, there were also “crazy” people or can I say people who were mentally unstable, that Peter met along the way.

Example, getting hurled vulgarity at, getting shirt tugged for no real reason and walking away, etc.

One such person was Ah Boy (a random name I have picked), who used to keep a pocket knife with him always. One fine day in the camp, he beat up a few army officials (I do not know for what reason). This matter escalated to higher officials and Ah Boy was sentenced to a jail term in the detention barrack (DB). This is where Peter comes into the story.

Given his role as a storeman under the transport section, Peter was also tasked to escort the prisoners to the detention barrack. That was what Peter had to do for Ah Boy, escort him safely to the detention barrack and not letting him escape. Despite the slight fear, Peter firmly clutched the hands of Ah Boy which was brought to Ah Boy’s back with a handcuff attached to the hands of Peter. Imagine if Ah Boy attempted to run, it will drag Peter along too. But Peter did not let that happen and managed to send him to the detention barrack. Bravo!!

During his final months in the army, Peter continued to learn more about logistics and even has mentored a person in logistics who finished serving his sentence in the DB. Awesome leadership path.

Job Opportunity

After his ORD (Operationally Ready Date) on 2013 December, Peter found a job in the Swiss post as data entry and logistic personal. A year later he dropped out of the job as he couldn’t cope with the management style given his Cerebral Palsy. He then when doing odd jobs like a technician, admin, and etc. This when on till 2015. After that, he found a job as warehouse packer in Sportslink, where he is in till today. Wow, such long service.

He wished to say a special thanks to Mr. David, the Head of the Warehouse Department who gave him advices, suggestions, and support during the job.

And he lived happily ever after!!! The end.

Shining through soccer

Wait!!! Remember during the introduction I mentioned that Peter is now a goalkeeper in the Paralympics soccer team in Singapore. Yes, that is true. Despite having Cerebral Palsy,  had made many appearances and various opportunities to travel and play at overseas  ASEAN countries. Like Abu Dhabi in Dubai in 2012 for AFC (Asia Football Confederation). There, he was part of the international competition against top teams like Iran, Australia, Korea, Jordan, and UAE (United Arab Emirates).

But unfortunately, on that trip, Peter slit his wrist in a small accident. It wasn’t so serious, but it was serious enough to disallow him to play his primary role as a goalkeeper for the tournament. This got Peter to feel very disappointed and sad. But his coach, Zainudeen had another alternative. To position Peter as a right-back defender. And you know what, throughout the whole tournament Peter managed to score 1 goal and pulled the team to win 3rd in the tournament. Awesome!

 

That was not all. In 2013 the Singapore Paralympic team together with Peter played the 7th ASEAN Para Games in Myanmar and came in 2nd.

 

 

 

 

 

And it when on.

Next is in 2020, where he and his team are going to play the ASEAN Para Games in the Philippines with top ASEAN teams. Like Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar and of course the host themselves, Philippines.

Let’s all support and wish for team Singapore’s Paralympic soccer team to win the tournament and achieve the ultimate victory.

 

>> This video clip is an edited version of the video by ourbetterworld.org, do catch the full version of the video in youtube by clicking this link <<

 

Future desire

When I asked about his future desires, Peter just told me these simple wishes.

1. To stay active,

2. Help those challenged individuals to achieve their goals and

3. Continue to do volunteering.

What a humble guy with humble and empowering desires.

 

 

Message to the world

But before we finished off our conversation, Peter wanted to tell something to the world. And it was,

“Never stop doing what you can do, give it your best! & never stop believing till you try!!!”

Not everyone is aware about Cerebral Palsy and it’s challenges. I hope this Blog will tell you more.

Let’s all do our part to be aware of such challenges in our country. And believe in ourselves, go beyond our limits, challenges, hurdles, obstacles and become our BEST!!!

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Chronic Spastic Paraparesis.. such a long and a cool phrase!! Is that the name of an Italian dance style?! Like a Para – para dance. NO!!! It is actually, an inherited disorder that is characterised by progressive weakness (gait difficulties & stiffness) and spasticity of the legs. This disorder affects the spinal cord, compromises the immune system, and cause muscle weakness and loss of skin sensation in both legs (balance and coordination issues).

That is what our zero to hero, Tommy, a 28-year-old, strong-willed gentleman suffered and is still suffering from. Tommy did not live an ordinary life like You, Me or Harry (who is Harry??). It was rather interesting. He was given birth to a mother which he does not know who it is till now. Yes, he was adopted by a Singaporean couple from China when he was around 1 to 2 years old.

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