ST Kinetics staff cycling from China for charity

Singaporean Lim Wee Yin, 57, is one serious cycling enthusiast. This month, he will be taking his passion for the sport to a different level when he embarks on a daunting 5,000km cycling odyssey from Guizhou province in southwestern China to Singapore.

And he will be doing it all for the sake of charity.
 

With the support of ST Kinetics management and staff, corporate sponsors, well-wishers and friends, Wee Yin, Director of Production Planning and Control at Guizhou Jonyang Kinetics (GJK), hopes to raise S$200,000 (US$162,000) for the Assisi Hospice in Singapore. This will be the first time that someone is cycling across countries to raise funds for Assisi Hospice. The facility takes care of adult and child patients with life-limiting illnesses.

Wee Yin’s journey, most of which will see him cycling alone, will begin on April 28. Wife Charlotte Seng plans to fly to Guizhou to flag him off and to give moral support.

From Guizhou, the 50-day trip will see Wee Yin pedaling his mountain bike on paved roads through towns and villages in northern Laos and Thailand, where his route will take him through cities such as Chiang Mai and Bangkok. Heading south, he will then cycle the entire length of the Malaysian peninsula, which stretches for about 1,000km.

Eighteen-year-old Shi Yuan, Wee Yin’s second son, intends to join him on the final leg from either Kuala Lumpur or Malacca.

Wee Yin’s two-wheeled adventure will culminate on June 16. His finishing point will be St Joseph’s Institution International at Thomson Road, where Assisi Hospice will be holding its annual fund-raising event.

This long-distance cycling trip for a charitable cause is not an entirely new endeavor for Wee Yin. In 2004, together with a friend, he completed a 10,000km fund-raising journey over 100 days from Beijing to Singapore for the Children’s Cancer Foundation and Club Rainbow in Singapore and the Shanghai’s Health Foundation.

A key factor which Wee Yin is thankful for in his cycle-for-charity quests is the keen support from ST Kinetics management and staff.

“I am grateful for the company’s kind understanding and willingness in helping me to balance my work commitments and personal pursuits for charity. My colleagues have also been a wonderful source of inspiration and assistance for me. In many ways, I feel blessed to be in a corporate organization that believes in giving back to the community that we operate in,” says Wee Yin.

He adds that the biggest challenge for him in the Guizhou-Singapore adventure is not so much the physical demands of cycling but the quest to raise funds for the hospice. Still, he is quietly confident of meeting the target through the generosity of sponsors, well-wishers and personal contacts.