1. health and fitness

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MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2014
Bukit Batok
East residents
warm up to
health drive
KING OF THE
GETAI WORLD
Taiwanese singer-host Hao Hao
was crowned the best male
getai singer at the annual Shin
Min-Wanbao Getai Awards
2014 yesterday. The
33-year-old was also named
one of the top 10 most popular
getai artists.
The event, organised by
Singapore Press Holdings’ Shin
Min Daily News and Lianhe
Wanbao Chinese newspapers,
honours the best talents in the
getai industry. A total of 19
awards were handed out at
Suntec Singapore Convention
and Exhibition Centre.
Plan to expand programme after marked
increase in attendance at health talks
ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO
National youth triathlete hit by lorry while cycling
NATIONAL youth swimmer and triathlete
Jeremia Christy Suriadi, who hopes to represent Singapore in the SEA Games next
year, was injured last week after being hit
by a lorry.
The Singapore Sports School student,
17, was cycling along Woodlands Avenue
12, on her way to meet her coach in Gambas Avenue, when the accident happened.
She was apparently flung off her bicycle
and landed 8m away.
She has compression fractures in seven
vertebrae and a fractured hip bone. She is
recovering at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
Her father, horticulturist Trijanto Anton Suriadi, 48, said: “She’s still in pain
and it will take time for her to recover.
She’s very upset as she has two triathlons
next month. She wants to represent Singapore at the SEA Games, and we are still
hopeful about that.”
She took first place in the Junior Distance category of the Singapore Aquathlon
last month and came in third for the Junior
Sprint at the International Triathlon Union
Asian Cup held in Singapore in August.
While it was not a case of hit-and-run,
Mr Suriadi is appealing for eyewitnesses to
come forward to “better understand exactly what happened”.
Police confirmed that they received a
call at 7.01am last Monday. Investigations
are ongoing.
There have been other accidents this
year involving cyclists and heavy vehicles.
In July, a cyclist in his 70s was fatally run
over by a truck near the National Library.
In March, another cyclist, 44, died after a
lorry hit him in Paya Lebar Road.
By LIM YAN LIANG
RESIDENTS in Bukit Batok East are
paying more attention to their health
after a programme was launched in
April featuring regular health checks
and talks for the public.
The constituency is now looking at
expanding the Healthy For Life
programme to help more residents
stay active and well, said Speaker of
Parliament Halimah Yacob, who is a
grassroots adviser in Bukit Batok East.
Attendance at community health
talks has shot up from an average of
fewer than 20 people to about 60, and
the sessions are now being held
monthly rather than quarterly, said
Madam Halimah.
The talks are also attracting more
elderly people with sessions in Mandarin and Malay, she added. About one
in three residents out of the 62,000
residents there is over the age of 50.
Bukit Batok East is one of the five divisions under the Jurong GRC.
“We find that when we organise
the talks in their language, we see the
numbers go up,” Madam Halimah
said.
She was speaking to reporters yesterday at the Mega Community
Health Carnival held at the Bukit
Batok East Community Club. It was
organised by Bukit Batok East grassroots organisations in conjunction
with JurongHealth, which runs hospitals in the Jurong area.
Plans are in the works to make the
carnival a yearly affair, said Madam
Halimah. Community partners such
as JurongHealth, Thye Hua Kwan, the
Singapore Association for Mental
Health and Sun Love Home have indicated a five-year commitment to programmes in Bukit Batok East.
To ensure that residents keep up
the habits of healthy living, the constituency will work with JurongHealth to develop a tracking system
to survey residents’ lifestyles.
The constituency also wants to
work with the 700-bed Ng Teng Fong
General Hospital when it opens next
year, so that volunteers and community organisations can monitor the recovery of elderly Bukit Batok East residents after they are discharged.
Those who need to return for tests
and follow-ups can be actively encouraged to do so. “The most important
thing is that this is not just a
one-off,” Madam Halimah said.
Among the 1,000 residents who attended the carnival yesterday were
housewife Hoe Geok Huay, 71, and
her lorry-driver husband Tan Hai
Choi, 77. Madam Hoe said she welcomed the health fair as a full checkup would otherwise cost too much.
“I’ve been exercising more regularly these few months as there are now
more activities being organised,” said
Madam Hoe, who joins Sunday brisk
walks and aerobic and taiji classes
organised by the residents’ committee.
“After visiting friends in hospital
and seeing how much pain they suffer, I want to stay as healthy as I
can,” she added.
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