Firsthand: S'pore student, 17, walks 165km in under 41 hours to honour aunt who died of cancer

What does it take to make an impact?

17-year-old Justus Toh believes that sometimes, all you need to do is simply start, and everything else will fall into place.

This mentality seems to have taken him far, literally.

From Jun. 27 to 28, he successfully covered the perimeter of Singapore on foot in two days, becoming the fastest Singaporean to do so for a double-stage walk.

But besides earning his place in the Singapore Book of Records for the longest double-stage walk, he also helped raised funds for 365 Cancer Prevention Society's (365CPS) 'Supporting Our Cancer Fighters' campaign.

Cancer awareness

When Toh first told me about the walk, I was surprised to learn that it was not his first rodeo when it came to cancer awareness.

Over the past two years, he had shaved his head in solidarity of cancer patients, and intends to continue making a meaningful gesture every year, he told me over a video call.

He feels such actions could generate a greater impact, adding that seeing loved ones suffering from the disease inspired him to make his actions meaningful.

He also decided to attempt to break a record as an added personal challenge.

His goal was to make the longest round Singapore walk in the shortest time, a feat that was then recorded at 159.1 km in 39 hours and 50 minutes.

But why cancer awareness?

Guilt and grief

Toh has unfortunately experienced losing loved ones to cancer before.

His aunt had passed away from throat cancer in 2021, and then his grandmother in 2024 from a form of gastrointestinal cancer.

He later told me that his family has had a history of cancer.

"It's, I don't know, a sign for me to take an early detection test," he said.

It was his aunt's passing that had the largest impact on him.

"For two years, I didn't even know she had cancer," he said, thinking the wigs she wore to hide her hair loss during chemotherapy was simply "a new hairstyle".

This was despite living just a floor above him for years.

While he said that he was admittedly "not very close to [his aunt]", it was her warmth and kindness amidst a tumultuous family landscape that made him feel loved.

As a child, Toh recalled receiving Christmas presents bought from abroad by his aunt.

She would also defend him whenever he was punished by other adults in the family, he told me.

"It felt very heartwarming because I've always felt very distant, like the outcast. But these little bits and pieces made me feel loved as well," he said.

"Those are probably the happiest memories that I have with her."

Her sudden death after two years of battling cancer came as a shock to Toh, who felt some guilt for not realising that his aunt had been suffering.

But it also made him realise how fleeting life was, he told me.

"You don't get to choose what you get, you don't get to choose your fate. So you have to cherish what you have."

The walk

The first time Toh and I met in person, we had agreed to meet midway through his journey so that I could join him for a portion of the walk.

We convened in Punggol in the early evening of Jun. 28, when he had already been walking for close to 24 hours across the northern parts of the island.

Clad in outdoor gear, including hiking boots and a backpack filled with camping essentials, he looked every bit the part of someone who was embarking on an overnight walk.

Yet, except for a small limp in his gait, nothing suggested to me that he had been on his feet for a full day.

"The first few kilometres were quite bad," he said, telling me about the pain he had been experiencing in his limbs due to a preexisting joint injury he had.

Setbacks

Toh's walk had already encountered a few hiccups.

Just hours after commencing the journey, a torrential thunderstorm in the middle of the night forced him to stop and find shelter, setting him back by an hour.

He was also slightly behind his planned pace as a friend who had joined him in the first few hours had to take more rests than Toh had expected, he told me.

Having to conserve his limited energy, and getting enough rest while keeping his pace were also considerations he had to navigate and conserve wisely.

In the first 24 hours, he had only had a full hour of sleep and two Subway sandwiches to tide him over, lovingly brought over by his girlfriend, Shean Sing.

She joined him midway on his walk, and trailed us steadily on a bicycle as we spoke.

Hardest part of the walk

I asked Toh what the hardest part of the walk had been in the first 24 hours.

"Lim Chu Kang Road," he said with a slight chuckle.

"It was looking like an endless road."

Referring to the recently decommissioned stretch, he described the mental fatigue from just looking at how far the road led.

The thought of "can the road just end already?" was on repeat during his walk on that stretch of road.

He coped with the daunting length by looking down at the road and following its lines, he told me.

"I just zoned out completely."

An outdoor lover

I wanted to know more about what had driven Toh to choose such a physically demanding challenge.

Turns out, it was his love for nature that compelled him to pursue his goal outdoors.

He grew up watching his grandfather in the garden at home, which eventually gave him an interest in plants and saw him work at Gardens by the Bay at one point.

Toh is currently the president of the Green Ambassadors Club at ITE College West, where he is a second year student in IT Systems and Networks.

It is perhaps the constant need to work with external vendors as part of the club that gave him the self-assuredness of someone far beyond his 17 years.

The club focuses on environmental stewardship, saying that he is personally driven to advocate for healthy living as part of cancer prevention.

His aunt

Curious about the woman who inspired all of these, I asked Toh to tell me more about his aunt, in his own words.

"Outspoken", "out there", "stubborn at times" were some of the phrases he used, but she was also the family member who made the largest impact on his life, he told me.

Formerly a librarian, she maintained a healthy lifestyle through frequent walks and runs, which was why her cancer diagnosis came as a surprise to Toh.

I asked if she would have joined him on the walk.

"She wasn't particularly an outdoor person," he said, but he believed that she would have done so.

"I feel like she would have been very supportive of this."

Breaking a record

Before we parted ways after about an hour of walking, it was already dark.

There was still another day to go for Toh, but he showed no sign of giving up.

"The fact that I made it so far...all the checkpoints I went through, it came from a lot of doubt, but now I'm here," he said when I asked what was keeping him going.

"And it happens again and again, kind of positively reinforcing the idea that I can do it."

That mindset clearly paid off.

Days later, he sent me a photo of himself beaming alongside a certificate indicating he had successfully broken a record for his feat.

It was for the longest double-stage round walk of 165.1km, in an impressive time of 40 hours and 39 minutes.

He also helped raised S$2,000 for 365CPS's fundraiser.

For a 17 year old, or anyone for that matter, completing such a feat is already quite the achievement.

Much less doing so for a good cause, and in memory of a loved one, who I'm sure is proud of what he has achieved.

I don't know what Toh will be up to next year for his next feat, how he will top this, or if he even has it all planned out yet.

But I do know that he will start on it soon enough, and it will probably all fall into place at the end.

Top images by Justus Toh.