2012. The year Kit Chan turned 40. And the year her mum was diagnosed with osteoporosis after suffering a hip fracture from a fall. In the subsequent months immediately after the accident, Kit’s family had to scramble to get used to what she describes as the “new normal”, a process that left the family “very stressed out”.

And one of the biggest challenges they had to work through was that Mama Chan had yet to “come to terms with her diagnosis”.

“She was frustrated and unhappy, and the whole family got really stressed out as a result,” Kit, now 48, shared during a phone interview with 8days.sg.

“[For caregivers], being understanding and accepting is very important. In the beginning, we tried to encourage her to do the things she used to do, but she was very resistant to the idea of it. It soon became as if we were just focusing on her failures. We thought we were being encouraging, but we weren’t at all!” Kit says.

Eight years on, however, Kit and her family have adjusted to this “new normal” swimmingly, with Kit taking on the role of the celebrity ambassador for Amgen’s osteoporosis awareness campaign, Our Unbreakable Bond.

As Kit shared during the Facebook Live session for the campaign’s launch, there is a silver lining of sorts in her mother’s diagnosis.

“After my mother suffered from her hip fracture after her major fall, I had to step up as her caregiver. While there have been challenging moments, I ultimately see this as a blessing because our roles have been reversed and I can now care for my mother as she did while I was growing up. Her diagnosis has strengthened our bond, because stronger bonds are forged during difficult times,” she said.

Apart from stronger bonds, it turns out that her mum’s fall had also pushed Kit to re-examine her lifestyle significantly.

“I’m one of those people who hardly ever exercises, and after I realised that, I went from exercising less than 10 times a year to about three times a week,” Kit said. But of course, Rome was not built in a day, and for Kit, this change took about eight years.

More specifically, eight years, and her mother’s osteoporosis diagnosis.

“When I turned 40, that was the year that my mum fell, and I think that was the push factor, where I realised that I’d better start exercising,” she says.

“I started by going to the gym ‘cos when you never really exercise, the first thing that you’d think of is to go to the gym, but I later realised that I hated the gym,” Kit laughs.

But after some trial and error, Kit finally settled on a routine that she enjoys: a mix of pilates and swimming, as well as some cardio and home-based weight exercises.

And more recently — qigong.

“Maybe I’m getting ready for old age, but really, qigong is amazing,” Kit gushes.

“What I do is very simple, but after practising it continuously for a month, I really feel a difference, especially from the waist down. I’m not really good with high heels, even though I might look that way on stage, and I really feel a difference now when I wear high heels ‘cos I’m more stable,” she says.

“During the Facebook Live session [for the campaign’s launch] with [Dr. Ang Seng Bin], he said that one of the main things beside strengthening your body [with exercise], is to make sure that you have good balance so that you don't fall. And I find that qigong is very good [at improving my balance],” Kit adds.

But even as Kit extolls the virtues of qigong to us, it appears that her family aren’t so sold on the exercise.

“I've talked to them about it, but so far no one wants to learn qigong. But they seem impressed ‘cos there definitely is a difference,” she says.

Oh well. Win some, lose some, right?

Photos: Kit Chan, Amgen