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YES933 DJ Chen Ning may have interviewed many people on her radio show The Daka Show, but there’s someone she never thought of going on air with.
She’s talking about her elder brother, Singapore Paralympian Daniel Chan.
Earlier this week, the 31-year-old jock welcomed her 37-year-old brother on her show to share about his journey as a para-shooter and how he is representing Singapore at the Paralympics in August.
“I swear it is so weird to interview your own brother at work but [lots of love]”, Chen Ning later wrote on IG, adding that it was a “proud sister moment” for her.
When 8days.sg reached out to Chen Ning, she shared that her brother suffers from obstetrical brachial plexus palsy, a result of an accident, which damaged the nerves in his left arm, during birth.
“He was a huge baby and my mum wanted to do a C-section, but the doctors told her she could do natural birth. During the delivery, his left hand came out first instead of his head, and the doctor pulled his hand which caused the nerves in his arm to be damaged,” she explained.
The jock also said her parents regret not filing a complaint against the hospital at that time as they were too affected by what happened.
Daniel, whose full-time job is a Go (a strategy board game, better known as wei qi) coach, developed an interest in shooting in 2016 after watching an athlete in his 40s competing in that sport at the Rio Olympics.
“There are many sports where an athlete can only compete for a certain number of years, but for shooting, there isn’t really a limit,” said Chen Ning.
Daniel was first introduced to shooting during National Service. He also had a friend whose mum is a shooting coach and that was how he got into the sport.
Though Chen Ning said she’s not in the position to comment on the obstacles her brother has faced throughout his Paralympics journey, she quipped that he’s been so busy with training, he has no time to date.
“He really spends a lot of time going for training… about six times a week, on top of his full-time job. For this sport they need to take part in many competitions, so last year he travelled a lot to many countries for competitions,” she revealed.
Chen Ning was the first person in their family to know about Daniel’s intentions of becoming a Paralympian as he was unsure how to break the news to their parents.
In a message Daniel shared with 8days.sg through his sister, he shared that he was worried that his parents might be upset with his decision as they don’t view his condition as a disability. But they were really happy for him when he told them about it.
Daniel was also concerned that his disability might not be recognised by others as his “condition is sort of invisible”.
Chen Ning acknowledged that there might have been hardships that Daniel experienced that she wasn’t there to witness.
“I didn’t go through the early stages of my brother’s childhood so I don’t know what he went through,” she recalled.
That said, Chen Ning has heard stories from Daniel about how his friends used to exclude him from certain games.
“If people didn’t want to play with me [as a kid], I would be sad too. So I can only imagine that’s how my brother felt then,” she said, adding that her brother can only use his right arm for day-to-day activities.
Despite his condition, Daniel can still lead a relatively normal life and Chen Ning and her family consider her brother “lucky”.
Through Daniel, Chen Ning also learnt that we can all work towards spreading more awareness about the Paralympics instead of only focusing on the Olympics.
“I’m guilty of that too,” she laughed. “Before my brother was active in the Paralympics, I wasn’t the most involved in it as well.”
“Now I realise: ‘How come I only watch the Olympics? I should be supporting the Paralympics too,'” she added.