Tenacity In Face Of Disability

'Adaptive' paddlers Dragon Warriors making waves at home and abroad

- Samuel Tan

When he woke up with dark vision one morning in 2017, Bernard Chew knew something was terribly wrong. Later that day, doctors at the hospital told him that he had retinal detachment in both eyes, but they could not save his sight.

Chew, 54, said: "I had an operation. They actually managed to save my retina. It was attached back but I still lost my eyesight because there was a lot of damage to the optic nerves.

"That was the main thing that caused me to be totally blind."

The former national dragon boater, who was then a freelance English drama teacher, saw his life change completely, but his passion for the sport never wavered.

In 2018, he started paddling for leisure with the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped. However, that came to an abrupt end when the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

But Chew, who was part of the national team from 1995 to 2000 and captained the side for two years, was determined to continue and also provide a form of exercise for the visually impaired.

Under DB Hearts—a ground-up initiative comprising volunteers from the local dragon boat community who seek to be inclusive—Team Dragon Warriors was set up in 2020, together with team manager Chua S.K. and fellow committee member Benson Loo.

When asked what birthed the idea, Chew, who now works as a massage therapist, said: "I guess it's the passion.