Strong believer of active ageing Mark Yuen relaxes on a rocky ledge, his back turned toward the ncharacteristically gloomy Kallang Basin.
Behind the 69-year-old, scores of singlet-clad paddlers are crowding onto dragon boats, eager to get their training going before the sun reemerges from behind a pillow of thick, grey clouds.
The silver has no such worries. He’d already completed his morning session on the va’a (a six-man canoe laterally conjoined to an extra float for better stability on choppy ocean waters), packed up, and hit the showers, all before most of us have even stepped into our air-conditioned offices.
Today’s session comprises of five sets of 500m at race pace, including turn practice at speed, then a longer 1,500m sprint across the reservoir to burn out any shred of power still clinging on to sore muscles.
It’s an important workout – one of three every week for the senior leading up to the 2024 International Va’a Federation World Sprint Championship in Hawaii this August.
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He’ll just have to make time for it in between the other pursuits he’s picked up since retiring from his wealth advisory job, including:
- dragon boat racing, as a member of various senior boating teams for more than six years;
- stand-up paddling, a leisure activity that became something else entirely when he signed up for, and completed, a gruelling 106km endurance paddle through Sai Yok National Park’s rivers in Kanchanaburi, Thailand;
- and trekking, with notable ascents like Japan’s Mount Fuji (3,776m) last year, and the Mera Peak high camp (5,800m) in Nepal a year before that.
Apart from all of that, Mark also found a place in his schedule to attend a professional hairdressing course, applying the skills he learnt to give free haircuts to seniors and the needy with a team of volunteers.
You might recognise him from the national broadsheet as “the little red hat”, so-called for the trademark red beret he dons when cutting hair at nursing homes and active ageing centres. In 2023, he and his team gave free haircuts on over 226 occasions, and are on track to complete the same feat this year.
Active ageing starts with a good retirement plan
What makes Mark’s regime even more impressive is the fact that he only got into these sports after retirement.
Before that, he was like most of us – “very aware” of the need to stay fit and healthy but spending less time than he’d like pursuing that goal.
After all, up till he retired early at the age of 48, the silver was busy plying his trade as a wealth advisor, after first starting out in the hospitality industry.
His vocation armed him not only with the means necessary to build up a comfortable nest egg, but also a keen urgency to map out his future years.
"Unfortunately, a lot of people stop growing once they’ve reached that milestone. But the average life expectancy for men in Singapore is about 80, which means that you’ve still got a long way to go when you stop working."
"You work so hard your whole life, and then you leave your best years to fate. That’s not for me."
Active ageing with a busy schedule
Currently in July 2024, Mark’s schedule is pretty jam-packed with weekends, ironically, being the busiest days of his week.
The senior spends Saturday morning on the va’a – his third session of the week apart from Tuesday and Thursday – before resting up and heading for National Day Parade rehearsals, where he’ll be part of the Strong Seniors segment along with other silver fitness inspirations.
Sundays aren’t a day of rest either, as he’s got dragon boat practice with a senior crew at Lower Seletar Reservoir.
That leaves the rest of the week for other pursuits, like spending time with his three grown-up daughters, volunteering and actively learning a host of new skills, especially when he was grounded during the pandemic.
These include singing (lessons with a vocal coach), playing the ukelele (which he learnt over Zoom), rock climbing (he became so proficient that he tackled Singapore’s only natural outdoor crag in Dairy Farm Nature Park before it was closed off to the public), scuba diving, abseiling, wind surfing and a host of other things.
Gives pro bono haircuts for seniors and the needy
As luck would have it, this voracious appetite for learning eventually led Mark to picking up a skill that complemented his search for meaningful volunteering opportunities in retirement.
He quickly passed the course, before reaching out to connections in the grassroots organisations, which he’d been a member of for over 20 years, to set up free haircut sessions. Word soon got around, and both the seniors that turned up as well as his crew quickly grew in number.
The volunteer troupe – christened Team MDI for Mirror D’ International, the beauty school where he got his hairdressing certification – now counts over 100 volunteers among its ranks, including “salon owners, lawyers, doctors and retirees”, spread among several sessions across Singapore every week.
Living with no regrets
