At Jurong Lake Gardens on a weekday afternoon, you may expect to see birds foraging for food in the grass, or aeroplanes flying by from the nearby Tengah Airbase.On some afternoons, though, parkgoers are treated to a little surprise – not a bird or a plane but "Superman" running by them with a smile plastered on his face. This "superhero" is 61-year-old expatriate Simon Trevor Wood, who has been living in Singapore since 2016.His running antics have drawn hundreds of thousands of views on social media after curious passers-by uploaded videos of him out and about.
Just in March, a TikTok video of him waiting at a road crossing after a warm-up run – to prepare for the Singapore Cancer Society's Relay For Life 2026 – received more than 600,000 views.True to the spirit of the DC Comics character Superman – who dedicated himself to using his superhuman strength for the good of humanity – Mr Wood, too, is using his love for running to raise money and support several charities.
Born in London, England, in the 1960s, when the country was going through an economic crisis, Mr Wood recalled being picked on when he was a child.With a smaller build and platinum-blond hair, he stood out and was often bullied in school for food, money and whatever else other boys could get their grubby hands on."In one case, I got beaten up with two broken ribs … and then got my head put down the toilet."But back in those times, you never spoke of those things, because it wasn't something to be spoken of. You had to toughen up," he recalled of his primary school years.BROKEN LEG, UNBROKEN SPIRITHe endured the bullying until a traffic accident when he was 13 years old left him wheelchair-bound for three agonising months. The motorcyclist who struck him and his mother at a pedestrian crossing on their way home from his school was later caught.However, the accident had a silver lining. With his right leg fractured in three places and requiring more than 70 stitches, he needed physiotherapy to learn to walk again. And once he could stand on his own, he embraced an active lifestyle and started training with weights, practising martial arts, swimming, running long distances and more, which made him fitter and also put an end to the bullying.
