CNA938 Rewind - A Letter to Myself: Claudia Poh and the empowering function of adaptive fashion
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Claudia Poh is the founder of adaptive fashion label Werable, which designs clothes and accessories that can be more easily used by everyone, regardless of their physical abilities. Claudia shares how a pivotal encounter with a lady who had been diagnosed with a medical condition that limited her mobility, opened her eyes to the empowering potential of adaptive fashion, and how she's grown through her journey as a fashion entrepreneur.
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CNA
4 hours ago
- CNA
She scaled Everest, K2 and Annapurna, and escaped avalanches: 'I feel alive in the mountains'
The highest point on earth, Mount Everest has long been a symbol for the triumph of the human spirit. Many climbers spend years training for it, and six to nine weeks climbing it, including the trek to base camp and the time required to acclimatise to the altitude. This is because the final summit push from base camp at 5,364m to the peak at 8,848m covers close to 3,500m. And anything above 8,000m is known as the Death Zone – oxygen levels drop to 33 per cent of that at sea level and temperatures dip to -40°C. Against howling winds, mountaineers cross a narrow ledge, a knife-edge ridge, and a vertical rock wall with spiked boot attachments, ice axes and fixed ropes. Experienced climbers take four to seven days for this final summit push. After extensive training, one young Singaporean woman did it in 36 hours, in 2023. The mountaineer is 33-year-old Vincere Zeng. GETTING TO THE EVEREST SUMMIT IN 36 HOURS In the mountaineering world, making a straight push to the summit is known as a speed ascent. Zeng had prepared relentlessly for it, focusing on endurance training such as running, trail running and climbing stairs, as well as technical training such as rock climbing. But one thing Zeng did not anticipate was being stricken by bouts of illness during her climb. On the trek up to Everest base camp, Zeng caught influenza. Then, at base camp, two weeks before the summit push, she caught COVID-19. She still had a sore throat and a slight lingering cough when it came time to summit. 'At 5,300m, your body can never recover from any illness. Any respiratory or any lung related sickness is very dangerous because high altitude sickness also affects the lungs,' she said. However, Zeng could not wait any longer – the small window when weather conditions were suitable to summit was fast closing. 'Every night, I would ask myself if I should do this? Finally, I asked myself if I would regret it if I never tried. The answer was 'yes'. So I decided to try,' she told CNA Women. Her training paid off. Zeng made a remarkably rapid ascent. She was forced to pause for several hours because of diarrhoea from something she had eaten. Then, she continued to push forward, reaching the Everest peak in pitch darkness at 3.30am on May 18, 2023. Her summit time: 36 hours. Zeng did not linger to bask in her triumph. 'On the mountain, when you say 'summit', it is not about going to the summit. It is about getting home. In high altitude climbs, 70 per cent of the deaths or more happen during the descent. 'You are very motivated when you are going up. But a lot of times, once you summit, suddenly all the energy is gone and it's very easy to make mistakes. Descending is actually the more critical part of the climb,' Zeng noted. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Everest News (@theeverestnews) Just below the summit, one of Zeng's contact lenses blew away in the savage winds. Severely shortsighted at 800 degrees, she had to hold on to her sherpa to descend the world's highest mountain in half-blindness. She made it down, and undeterred, moved on to scale Lhotse, the world's fourth highest peak, the very next day, a feat that many elite mountaineers aspire to because this 8,516m mountain is connected to Everest at 7,906m altitude. On May 19, 2023, Zeng became the first Southeast Asian woman to summit both Everest and Lhotse back-to-back during the same expedition AN ACCIDENTAL MOUNTAINEER Zeng never set out to be a mountaineer. The young woman, who is currently a strategy and transformation program manager at a software company, climbed her first mountain, 5,895m-high Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, as part of her graduation trip in 2015. She surprised herself by how well she did. 'My African guide said I was even faster than some of the porters,' she laughed, adding that she had never excelled in sports before. 'I like the way I pushed myself and achieved something. It sparked something in my heart,' she said. Two years later, in 2017, she scaled the 6,476m high Mera Peak in Nepal without training and also completed the climb faster than most. Spurred on by her success, that same year, she attempted the 6,961m-high Aconcagua in Argentina. Unfortunately, this time, her summit day coincided with her menstrual cycle and she felt weak. 'My body just gave up. I just could not move my legs anymore and had to turn back,' she said. It was in failure that Zeng found her fire. She set her heart on the 7,134m Lenin Peak, on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. For the first time ever, she threw herself into training. She hiked, did rock-climbing, and began trail running in forests and hills in Bukit Timah, MacRitchie Reservoir, as well as parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. In August 2018, she ascended Lenin Peak smoothly. Aiming to summit Mount Everest in 2020, Zeng doubled down on training. Unfortunately, COVID-19 disrupted her plans. When travel restrictions were lifted in 2021, she climbed 8,163m Mount Manaslu in Nepal instead, attempting a speed ascent of the eighth-highest mountain in the world for the first time. Climbers typically engage sherpas to carry heavy equipment and fix ropes during these climbs. However, when Zeng propose a speed ascent, the sherpa company dismissed her request, doubting her abilities. 'I had to leverage a male friend to speak to the manager and make it happen,' she said. And Zeng did indeed make it happen. The young woman ascended from base camp at 4,800m to the foresummit around 8,160m in 23 hours; most climbers take four to seven days. To complement her mountaineering, Zeng also took part in trail-running races, especially in mountainous terrain. In 2022, she topped the women's category at the 100km Cameron Ultra Race in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. Her success gave her the confidence to resurrect her Everest-Lhotse plans in 2023. CLIMBING THE WORLD'S DEADLIEST MOUNTAINS Zeng's mountaineering journey did not stop at Everest and Lhotse. In July 2023, Zeng climbed a far deadlier mountain – K2 in Pakistan. At 8,611m, the mountain is notorious for its steep terrain – requiring rock and ice climbing – as well as unpredictable weather. Prior to 2021, approximately one in four climbers who summitted K2 died. One of the hardest parts of the climb is known as the Bottleneck – a steep 70-to-80-degree vertical climb of ice and snow. This is followed by a narrow icy traverse (a ledge) that climbers edge sideways across, underneath massive ice towers that could collapse at any moment without warning. When Zeng reached this traverse, a Pakistani porter had just fallen and dangled upside down on the fixed rope, suspending thousands of metres above a glacier. In falling, he had dislodged the anchors of the fixed ropes which secured other climbers. For two to three hours that night, Zeng balanced precariously on the narrow traverse while sherpas attempted the rescue. The porter did not make it. 'I was quite scared. It was dark and when you looked down, you could not see the bottom. But because there were many climbers behind me, I could not turn back,' she recounted. 'It's an avalanche area. Luckily, the avalanche hit the other side, not ours.' After summitting K2, came Annapurna in Nepal this year. This deadly mountain is known for its ice walls, avalanches and treacherous storms. Historically, about one in three climbers who summitted died, though the fatality rate has improved significantly in recent years. Because of unpredictable weather, there was only one day for the summit push this year, and it came earlier than previous years. Without time to properly acclimatise, Zeng had to push through symptoms such as headaches while summiting. 'There is a section we need to pass that has constant avalanche – multiple times a day. The day I summited, two sherpas died at that place,' Zeng added. On April 7, 2025, Zeng summited Annapurna – becoming the first Singaporean to do so. "I FEEL ALIVE IN THE MOUNTAINS" Zeng has since climbed six 8,000m-high mountains – Annapurna, K2, Everest, Lhotse, Manaslu, as well as Makalu in Nepal in May. She hopes to continue to add more peaks to her list and put the Little Red Dot on the mountaineering map. She usually takes a month off work each year for her climbs. Born in Szechuan, China, and growing up in a single parent family – her parents divorced when she was a baby – Zeng earned a scholarship to study in Singapore at the age of 17, and became a Singapore citizen in 2021, when she was 29. Though frequently underestimated as the 'young little Asian girl' – she's 1.62m –Zeng said that the spirit of pushing limits and seeking out new challenges shaped her life, and she hopes to inspire others to do the same, whether in mountaineering or other fields. Mountaineering, she added, is not as dangerous as some may think. As the sport becomes more commercialised, the fatality rate for most mountains has fallen sharply over the years. Proper training and planning significantly mitigate the risks, Zeng added. For instance, the fatality rate for Everest has dropped to around one per cent in recent decades because of improved safety measures and weather forecasting. That said, mountains like K2 and Annapurna remain perilous even for well-prepared elite climbers. Zeng continues to brave these mountains because it is where she feels most alive. 'I'd rather die somewhere I love than on a hospital bed,' she reflected. But when people say Zeng conquered a mountain, she is quick to correct them. 'Please do not use the word 'conquer',' she said. 'In the mountains, there are so many things that you can't control. I think it's more like you are accepted by the mountain, and you are just part of it. ' When you are on an 8,000m mountain, it is massive whiteness; a feeling of infinity. You're just a tiny little dot. You let go of all your ego,' she said.
CNA
6 hours ago
- CNA
A homesick craving inspired her to launch a Singaporean supper club and food brand in London
It was a comforting bowl of bak chor mee (minced meat noodle) that changed it all. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Megan Tan was living in London and working as a finance lawyer. With the city in lockdown, her homesick roommate was craving local Singaporean food. 'It was her birthday and we couldn't go anywhere. I wanted to do something thoughtful for her, so I asked her what her favourite dish was. It was bak chor mee, so I Googled a recipe and made it for the first time,' Tan, 30, recalled. That simple act of cooking for a friend was enough to spark a realisation in Tan for two reasons. 'First, it was the feeling of making something with my own two hands. And second, it was making something that I love so much, and that she loved so much too, and the joy that it brought to the both of us.' In fact, Tan enjoyed the experience of cooking for others so much that for the rest of the lockdown, she started opening up orders for dishes such as wonton mee, Hokkien mee and carrot cake on her Instagram. During the weekends, she would cook the dishes and cycle out to deliver them herself. 'I had a lot of fun and I think it gave me a lot of meaning and human connection at a time when it was very short in supply,' Tan, a self-professed extrovert, reflected. Eventually, she launched Homi Kitchen, a supper club run out of her apartment where she serves Singaporean dishes to guests. What started as a nostalgic dinner for her social bubble soon evolved into something bigger. Beyond the supper club, Tan is on a mission to create a brand that can make 'Singaporean flavours easily accessible on supermarket shelves for everyone in the UK', said the young entrepreneur. In early 2025, Tan went on to launch her first product – the Giga Chicken Rice Chilli sauce, a flavour-packed condiment inspired by one Singapore's most beloved dishes, with more products already in the pipeline. FROM LAW TO LOCAL FLAVOURS Born and raised in Singapore, Tan grew up in a three-generation household in Serangoon, with her grandmother, an avid cook, cooking Teochew dishes every day for the family. 'She's the queen of the kitchen. I would try to help, but quite often I would be making things worse,' Tan recalled with a laugh. It wasn't until she studied law at the University of Oxford in the UK that she began experimenting with cooking herself. 'I missed food from home, and the funny thing is, I didn't have a kitchen in my college accommodation. I only had a rice cooker, and I had all my sauces and ingredients in a box.' She made do with the limited setup, cooking Asian comfort dishes such as chicken curry and katsu curry in that one pot. She often invited friends to gather in her room for dinner, who brought over their own bowls and cutlery. After completing her legal training back in Singapore, Tan made the jump to move to London full-time. 'Within the legal industry, London is one of the big hot spots for top-notch firms and teams. It is also a very international, cosmopolitan city,' she said of the move. A few years into her legal career, Tan quickly realised that her true passion laid elsewhere. 'What sparked the greatest joy for me was being in the consumer retail space, and seeing my customers really enjoying my food and being grateful for the comfort that a simple bowl of noodles brought them,' said Tan. Homi Kitchen was a way for her to indulge in her love for cooking while balancing a demanding day job. 'Why I started the supper club was to also test my theory that there's a growing interest in Singaporean food in the UK. It was a way to meet people who weren't necessarily from Singapore or Malaysia to find out how they know about the cuisine and why they were curious enough to try it,' Tan explained. For her very first supper club, Tan whipped up a Hainanese chicken rice feast. Later on, the menus featured other Singaporean hawker favourites such as carrot cake, wonton mee and even a chilli crab and black pepper crab session. Seats are usually priced around £25 (S$42). At the table, 'there was always a mix of nationalities, which is reflective of life in London,' said Tan. Despite the success of the supper club, Tan knew that if she were to leave her job, it would not be to continue hosting private dinners. Instead, she had bigger ambitions. 'Here in London, we already have a growing number of Singaporean and Malaysian restaurants. We have Singapulah, which still has long queues months after opening, and we've got Old Chang Kee as well, so I don't think London necessarily needs another restaurant,' said Tan. 'I think what the UK is lacking is authentic Singaporean flavours on grocery shelves.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Homi Kitchen (@ From her very first supper club session, where she served Hainanese chicken rice, Tan was already toying with the idea of selling the accompanying chilli sauce she had made from scratch. Over time, she used each supper club as a testing ground, gathering feedback from her diners. 'I wanted to get a good sense of what would be a great product that people actually want,' she said. 'By the time I left my job, I had a very clear idea of what the product would be and the kind of people who would be interested in the brand.' COOKING UP A BRAND With the Giga Chilli Sauce, Tan wants to bridge the gap between home-cooked meals and dining out at a restaurant. The condiment is meant to help home cooks add interesting, familiar flavours to their dishes with minimal effort. Tan's customers have been creative in the way they use the sauce too. Beyond pairing it with chicken rice, they have slathered it on sandwiches or stirred it into their takeaway pho from the nearby Vietnamese restaurant. At one of Homi Kitchen's pop-up events, Tan even created a 'chicken rice cocktail' in the form of a spicy margarita with the chilli sauce as a base, in collaboration with a bar in Camden market. Customers interested in the Giga Chilli Sauce can currently purchase it online on Homi Kitchen's website. The condiment is also stocked at grocers, food courts and delis such as Raya at Borough Market, Eat 17 on Orford Road, Polhill Farm Shop at London Road and Harvest E1 on Brick Lane. The name Homi Kitchen – a playful twist on 'home' that also means 'homie', as in friend – reflects Tan's dual vision for the brand. 'As I started out as a homerun supper club, I wanted people to feel at home with the brand. It's also a reminder to myself that my focus is also on getting my products into other people's homes.' The brand wants to share the 'crazy rich flavours of Singapore" beyond its shores, as its tagline encapsulates. And for Tan, the chilli sauce is just the beginning. 'Right now, it's just chilli sauce, but long-term, the other products I have in mind are stuff like ready made char kway teow that you can pop into the microwave,' Tan elaborated. 'Of course, it will never be as good as going to your favourite store in Singapore, but my goal is to get as close as humanly and to fill that gap for someone who misses local food, or someone who is curious about the cuisine.' Tan is already working on Homi Kitchen's next condiment, the Hei Hei Black Pepper Sauce, slated to launch soon. 'At my black pepper and chilli crab supper club, some of the guests loved the black pepper sauce so much that they asked if I was going to start selling it,' shared Tan. 'I started looking into it and making the sauce for people to try at my events, putting them on things like tater tots just to get people to see it as something different and seeing how it lands. People really loved the flavour.' FINDING PURPOSE Giving up a prestigious career in law to pursue an uncharted path is a bold move. 'Growing up in Asia, and maybe especially in my generation, you are brought up to study hard to secure a good, stable job for the rest of your life,' said Tan, who attended Raffles Girls School and later Raffles Institution in Singapore. 'Reflecting on my younger years, part of why I chased a law career was because my friends were doing so,' Tan reflected. 'But as objectively desirable I knew a law career is for many people, eventually I had to accept that I would never be 100 per cent happy.' Stepping into entrepreneurship is 'unfamiliar territory' for her family, who do not come from a business background. While her parents were initially worried she was making a rash decision, they supported her wholeheartedly. Tan makes regular trips back to Singapore to spend time with her family. Her go-to dish when she's home? A comforting bowl of bak chor mee. Back in London, Tan continues to host supper club sessions while developing new products for Homi Kitchen. In June, she hosted two sold-out events in collaboration with Hong Kong milk tea brand Chadong. On the menu were dishes such as Hei Hei Pepper Pork Belly, Hainanese Chicken Rice and Popiah, while Chadong contributed milk bread prawn toast, lychee and lime granita and Hong Kong French toast ice cream bars. Despite the uncertainties that lie with entrepreneurship, Tan has found a sense of purpose in building something of her own. 'Whatever the outcome, I can say that I already find this journey meaningful,' she reflected. 'This is something I intrinsically want to do. No one needs to tell me that I'm doing a good job, or that it's the right thing to do. It still feels right for me."
CNA
13 hours ago
- CNA
New centre treating diabetic foot ulcers opens at Woodlands Health Campus
A new centre treating diabetic foot ulcers has opened at Woodlands Health Campus, bringing together medical experts in one dedicated area to deliver faster and more effective care. Health Minister Ong Ye Kung says Singapore has an unprecedented opportunity to identify the sick and treat them early to ensure a good quality of life for residents.
