Disability drove sportsman to encourage others to excel

Derek Ko Chi-kin is a busy man. His training academy runs a variety of team-building activities to enhance self-confidence, improve communication and encourage leadership skills. An avid sportsman, he practices cycling, canoeing, climbing, caving and mountaineering. He has an impressive list of sporting achievements to his name, and has won medals in several international competitions.

He has scaled peaks in Nepal and Taiwan, canoed to Macau and back, and cycled more than 10,000 kilometres around the United States, Europe and Taiwan. He does regular volunteer work and gives motivational talks.

“I’m going to give a talk at a primary school this afternoon,” Ko tells me when I meet him in Sha Tin. He is giving an example to illustrate his personal philosophy: value and be grateful for all that you are lucky to have. Derek adds: “After the speech, of course, they clap. And then I then I say to them, ‘See, you can clap with two hands! I haven’t clapped with two hands for so many years! Cherish it!’”. Ko smiles and adds cheekily, “but you don’t need two hands to give a thumbs up”.

At the age of 12, Ko lost his right arm to an aggressive kind of gangrene after a serious bone fracture. A sports enthusiast from a young age, Ko fell from a fence trying to retrieve the ball during a soccer game with school friends.

The gangrenous infection was particularly rare, and his doctors were not aware of it until it was too late. I ask Ko if he felt blame or anger. “I felt bad, that’s normal. But not angry.

Anger wouldn’t bring me a new hand,” he says. “Don’t say no before you try”. The motto for Ko’s training academy epitomises his energetic, assertive attitude to life. Be it water-skiing or competitive climbing, Ko has given almost everything a go. And mostly, he finds a way to excel, outwitting the odds.