MOH officer swims 82km in 3 days for charity
A record of close to 2,000 Operationally Ready National Servicemen and their families participated in the SAFRA Swim for Hope this year, raising $101,400.80 for charity. Photo: Wong Pei Ting
SINGAPORE — For the past three days, Mr Tan Teck Loon spent 10 hours in the pool daily to swim more than 500 laps.
With that, he set a new record of 1,639 laps, equivalent to 82km, in the Safra charity event Swim for Hope, breaking last year’s record by more than 300 laps.
“(I’m) happy to do a small bit to help the beneficiaries. (The cause) makes it easier to swim and take one lap at a time,” said the 39-year-old Ministry of Health officer.
The charity drive is in its sixth year, and 1,900 operationally ready national servicemen and their family members took part, raising $101,400.80 for the Community Chest, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Care Fund and the Special Olympics.
In the new parent-and-child category, Mr Akeem Khoo, 44, and his son Marcus, 10, together swam 875 laps, emerging top among 156 pairs. National para-athlete Theresa Goh also did her part, spending an hour in the pool on Friday.
This was followed by 20 participants from Special Olympics Singapore on Saturday and more than 320 participants from various SAF units yesterday. In total, 130,122 laps were swum. In a fund-raising auction, T-shirts autographed by Goh, Joseph Schooling and Yip Pin Xiu fetched S$6,000. WONG PEI TING
