Last week Mr. Sham shared the story about how Pele endured adversities in his childhood and finally became a famous professional football player. Today I would like to share a story of Daniel Chan (陳浩源), who is a Hong Kong para-badminton player and won a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Paralympics. Daniel family were not well off. He lived with his parent and siblings in a 150 sq ft public housing flat in Tsuen Wan. When he studied in secondary school, he was interested in playing badminton, so he joined the school’s badminton team and received intensive training. The year 2008 was a turning point in his life because he had a car accident and lost his leg. That year he was 22 years old. That was the darkest period in his life as he was hospitalized for 11 months, lying in bed everyday. His future became uncertain as he could not continue his career. However, he did not give up. After he was recovered, he tried para-badminton. He told his coach he wanted to be the first international wheelchair badminton player from Hong Kong. At that time, Hong Kong didn’t have a system to support full-time para-athletes, so he had to get a full-time job to sustain his life and received training at night. In 2017, he decided to join the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo. He sacrificed his career and prepared wholeheartedly for the games. Unfortunately, the games were delayed a year because of the pandemic. Although there were lots of challenges, Daniel did not give up and finally he won a bronze medal in the games.
Shungtakians, the theme of this month is ‘Love endures all things’. What we can learn from Daniel’s story is that we should endure adversities and stay positive. Then we can overcome the challenges. I hope Daniel’s story can inspire you. Form Six students, you are going to have your DSE exam very soon. I hope you can endure the adversities in the coming few months. Work hard and may the force be with you.
Wednesday, 7 May 2025