Tan Whee Boon is the world’s 1st quad amputee to race in a dragon boat
Life changed for Tan Whee Boon after he was diagnosed with a life-threatening condition that forced the amputation of all his limbs.
He fell into a deep depression and even considered taking his life.
But Boon, as he likes to be called, eventually found the strength to carry on — in fact, the 59-year-old Singaporean has become more active than ever, participating in various sports such as wheelchair rugby, table tennis, and dragon boating.
Image courtesy of Mr Jason Chen.
After speaking to an advocate of dragon boating, Boon, in collaboration with the Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD), decided to join the ‘Alita Initiative’.
This program aims to provide amputee racers, like Boon, with specialised tools to let them participate in the sport.
Now, Boon is set to become the world’s first quadruple amputee dragon boat racer this Sunday (28 July) at the Pesta Sukan.
Boon, along with a team of other amputees, have been training for weeks for the event and hope to show that if they can compete as dragon boaters, anyone can.
Lost all four limbs due to bacterial infection
In 2015, Boon ate a bowl of raw fish porridge, which led to him being admitted to the hospital seemingly for food poisoning.
But Boon was in danger of losing his life and for the next few weeks, doctors fought to save him.
He then developed gangrene in his limbs — his hands and feet turned black, and the only way for Boon to live, he was later told, was for doctors to amputate all four of his limbs.
“I felt… really hopeless [after that]. I didn’t dare to think about my future, not even the next minute,” said Boon.
Though Boon is cheerful and always has a smile on his face, this wasn’t always the case after his amputation.
He was despondent, mainly keeping to himself after he was discharged. He also stopped seeing friends and chose to stay home.
His wife, a homemaker, became his full-time caretaker. At many points, Boon felt bad for taking away all of her time.
“She needed to spare all her time to take care of me,” Boon said. “It was very difficult for her.”
He also did not want his two children, who were in secondary school at the time, to fuss over him.
“They always try to do stuff for me, but I always rejected them. I wanted them to focus on their studies and to not have so many worries,” he said.
“(Of course) they were concerned, but I try to let them have their freedom to do what they want.”
Found a way to bounce back and recover
Following his amputation, Boon had to quit his job as a technician in the chemical industry.
“I’m registered as having 100% total disability… in other words, I could do nothing,” he said.
It wasn’t until 2016, about a year after his ordeal, that he found the strength to take a step towards rebuilding his life.
For a long time, I was waiting for a chance to arrive. But then, I thought that I needed to change myself first — I need to create a chance.
Boon thus began his rehabilitation after a period of just “lying around”. He was able to walk again around the park below his block, which made him happier than he’d ever been before.
Then, in 2019, Boon began to register for courses through SG Enable. Since then, he has worked as a BIM (Building Information Modelling) modeller while sharing his experience with other amputees in various talks.
Wanted to show anyone can be a dragon boat racer
In 2019, Jason Chen of Dragon Boat Innovate (DBI) approached Boon to find out how they could work together.
The idea was to leverage innovation and design so that Boon could participate in dragon boating, and from there, show that anyone can do so.
“I wanted to bridge the gap and break down the barrier, make it easier for amputees to become a dragon boater,” Mr Chen told MS News.
“I got no arms, can meh?” Boon questioned.
But Mr Chen said it would be possible with the help of purpose-made equipment.
To make the idea a reality, he reached out to every local university to see if any of them would be keen on creating the equipment necessary for Boon to become a dragon boater.
Partnering with SUTD
None but one responded: SUTD. The project involved six Engineering Product Development students who were tasked to come up with the equipment prototypes.
These students voluntarily dedicated their free time to work on the project, even though it didn’t contribute to their academic grades.
“We all came together based on our passion and interest… it wasn’t for a school module,” said Chai Gien-Lyn, one of the six students involved.
Even though the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted their plans, the project was restarted in 2023.
Image courtesy of SUTD
Because there isn’t a lot of equipment for dragon boaters normally, the team came up with the designs based on Boon’s needs.
The devices created for him include a seat with lower limb support and a paddle attachment for right & left upper limbs.
They created an aluminium frame to elevate the height of the floor so that Boon can rest his limbs on a platform instead of the floor, Lyn said.
Then, for him to be able to grab onto the paddle, they created 3D-printed paddle attachments.
Boon’s compatriot, 35-year-old Henry Yong, has a similar seat which secures his lower limbs and paddle attachments for his arms due to his missing digits.
The SUTD students have also created ‘stroke paddlers’ for the amputee racers — these are chairs with back support which can be attached to the dragon boat seat to support the paddlers’ core.
“Cruelty” sometimes needed to convince others to join dragon boat team
A dragon boat team requires at least 10 racers.
As the team is only accepting amputees, it then fell to Boon to convince others like him to join the initiative.
He noted that he wanted to create more opportunities for them to leave their homes, but many were resistant.
“They’d be sceptical, ask me a lot of questions,” Boon said. “‘Under the sun, so hot. Crazy is it?’ they’d say. Water so dangerous, why would we do that?”
But he told some of them something he felt rather cruel, but needed:
If you just stay at home, you’ll die doing nothing. Might as well you die playing sports.
Though some are either stunned or even stop being his friend after he tells them this, Boon has still managed to bring together a group of amputees for the team.
When others see that Boon can exercise like he does, it lets them know that nothing is impossible.
Dream is to travel
Besides sports, another passion Boon has is travelling.
He describes being able to travel as a “miracle”, and has been able to go overseas since borders reopened last year.
Mr Chen, too, hopes to fulfil Boon’s dream and let the racers visit other countries for competitions.
For now, the upcoming tournament on 28 July can spell future opportunities.
An intermediate aim might be to participate in overseas tournaments too, although the team will take a break of a few months as they continue to iterate on the designs.
Quadruple amputee to participate in Pesta Sukan dragon boat event
Boon expressed that he was “excited” to participate in the race as the world’s first quadruple amputee dragon boat racer.
“I don’t know whether I can win or not,” he said, but he believes he can control the paddle well now, thanks to his training efforts.
The SUTD students, as well as volunteers, have been diligently coming to every training session on Saturdays too, making sure that the equipment is in place.
When MS News attended their training session on one such Saturday, it took more than 20 minutes just to get the equipment ready in the scorching hot sun.
“It’s been very fulfilling,” Lyn said. “It’s very constant progress, because we work very closely with Boon. The progress has picked up as we get closer to the competition, as we have more regular sessions with Boon. And that means more regular feedback and changes.”
“Not only myself, I think the audience will be excited also [to watch us race],” Boon profused. “[Me dragon boating] is like a miracle.”
Boon and his team of amputee dragon boaters will be competing at the Water Sports Centre, SportsHub on Sunday (28 July).
More information on the race schedule can be found on the Singapore Dragon Boat Association (SDBA) website.
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Featured image courtesy of SUTD.
