Kindhearted Singaporean helps mend senior citizen’s damaged wheelchair

A kindhearted Singaporean by the name of Joy Chen has greatly helped an 83-year-old senior citizen, by sponsoring the cost of mending his broken wheelchair. Ms Chen’s donation towards the elderly man, Mr Mohd, came after Singapore People’s Party member Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss highlighted his plight on social media.

In a post published on Thursday (25 Apr), Mrs Chong-Aruldoss shared that Mr Mohd – who lives at a rental unit at Blk 52 Cassia Crescent – “cannot walk unaided and relies on his wheelchair, especially to visit the hospital for his medical problems and medicine.”

Mr Mohd, however, had been stranded at his home for about two months since his wheelchair has not been functioning well due to a damaged tyre. The wheelchair’s supplier, DNR Wheels Pte Ltd, told Mrs Chong-Aruldoss that it would cost S$145 to fix the wheelchair while a new wheelchair would cost S$585.

Mr Mohd felt it was not necessary to get a new wheelchair and just hoped to have his wheelchair fixed but he does not have the financial means to pay for the repair.

Mrs Chong-Aruldoss appealed for donations to fix the wheelchair and said that the sum of S$145 will be paid directly to DNR Wheels Pte Ltd against their invoice. Just 15 minutes later, the politician closed the appeal after receiving several offers from netizens willing to bear the cost of repairs.

Ms Joy Chen was the first to offer to pay for the wheelchair repair works. Interestingly, even after Mrs Chong-Aruldoss closed the appeal, she received a generous offer from Senior Care, which was willing to give a free wheelchair to Mr Mohd.

When Mrs Chong-Aruldoss told Mr Mohd that someone has offered to give him a free wheelchair and that another has offered to pay the cost of repairing his existing wheelchair, an overwhelmed Mr Mohd chose to have his current wheelchair repaired.

Mrs Chong-Aruldoss wrote: “Mr Mohd sounded overwhelmed with the offer of a new wheelchair. He was thankful for the offer but said that all he wants is to get his wheelchair fixed so he can get to his medical appointments. Being an 83 year old man, I guess he preferred what he considered as the “simpler” solution.

“I am pleased to report that Mr Mohd’s wheelchair has been replaced with brand new tyres on 30 April 2019.”

The SPP member added that Ms Chen “not only paid the cost of replacing the tyres of the wheelchair, she also provided Mr Mohd with a cash gift of $400 for his personal welfare. I had the pleasure of seeing his face light up when he received the donation. He was surprised, touched and happy.”