Broken shower chair nearly ended Dr William Tan's 500km feat

He overcame high slopes and cold rain to get from London to Paris in four days; ironically, a broken shower chair nearly cost him the chance to cross the finishing line.

The mishap happened while he was taking a shower on his first night at a hotel in Calais, France, when his shower chair broke and he fell hard onto the soapy floor. The 58-year- old recalled: "The pain of this nearly killed the remaining race."

He had to resort to taking painkillers the next morning and, at one point, contemplated giving up and sitting in the support vehicle.

Together with 250 able-bodied cyclists, Dr Tan handcycled from Greenwich Park in London to the Eiffel Tower in Paris during the race organised by British blood cancer charity Bloodwise.

Paralysed from the waist down since the age of two due to poliomyelitis, he was diagnosed in 2009 with end-stage leukaemia and given only nine to 12 months to live.

Dr Tan will mark six years as a cancer survivor at the end of this month. He considers the London-Paris race the hardest challenge since his bone marrow transplant in 2009.

Although he achieved a similar feat last year, this year's race came less than a month after he pulled off a gruelling SG50 endurance challenge at Temasek Junior College, where he handcycled for 50 hours non-stop and raised $60,000 for charity.

The funds from the London-Paris race will go towards lymphoma research at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), where Dr Tan is a resident physician, and needy cancer patients at National University Hospital and Bloodwise.

Donations can be made online via the SG Gives website and Dr Tan's Bloodwise fund-raising page.

Amongst other challenges, his brake cable unexpectedly snapped on the third day while he was descending a steep slope, forcing another cyclist to sprint down to stop the runaway handcycle.

Despite such tribulations, Dr Tan said he was determined to press on to Paris, a place that holds special meaning for him. "I owe my life to doctors and nurses, and I want to translate their kindness towards helping needy cancer patients" said Dr Tan, in the light of his 2009 leukaemia diagnosis in the city after completing a marathon.

Credits: