Twelve Taiwanese and Hong Kong cancer patients are cycling around Taiwan to test their mettle, the group said on Thursday.
On the fifth day of their tour, the cyclists were in Kaohsiung and, after a vigorous warmup, headed toward Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) on Taiwan’s southern tip.
Since setting off from Taipei on Sunday, they said they have been riding eight hours a day, pushing themselves to the limit of their endurance and seeing if they could overcome their physical limitations.
Photo: CNA
“If I am not strong enough, nobody will give me the endurance” to stand up and fight, said Huang Chun-hung (黃俊鴻), 42, who was diagnosed four years ago with stage four nasopharyngeal cancer.
Since being diagnosed, Huang said that he has had to make major lifestyle changes, including quitting his job so that he could undergo regular long-term treatment.
However, the treatment not only made him weak, he also lost his appetite and was despondent, he said.
As part of his long battle with cancer, Huang said that he has exercised, including cycling, to improve his strength.
Cycling has helped him with problems, such as insomnia, and built up his strength, said Huang, who organized the round-the-island tour.
Huang said he has also been sharing his experience on social media and encouraging other cancer patients to go cycling around Taiwan to prove that cancer does not have to keep one from enjoying life.
Chan Ting-wai (陳定偉), a 31-year-old sports enthusiast from Hong Kong, said he became depressed after being diagnosed two years ago with stage-two lymphoma, adding that he needed to undergo 30 sessions of radiation therapy and chemotherapy.
However, sharing his feelings reignited his hopes and passion for life, he said.
Since he started cycling as part of his exercise routine, he has become healthy and robust, Chang said, adding that he would encourage other cancer patients to explore the outdoors and to enjoy life.
The 12 aim to ride 1,200km, finishing their tour in southern Taiwan on Tuesday.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
RSS