After losing his wife to cancer, Lim Shyang Guey has turned his grief into purpose, running to raise funds for childhood cancer support and to show that life doesn’t stop at 60.
At 66, Lim Shyang Guey, affectionately known as SG, is preparing to run 2,200km around Peninsular Malaysia
It will take him about 90 days, covering 11 states and two federal territories, climbing mountain roads, skirting highways, and weaving through towns most Malaysians only pass by in cars.
He will not be doing it alone. At every step, he plans to carry a photo of his late wife, Joo Lee, tucked close to his heart.
“The run has not started, but the journey has begun,” he told SAYS during an exclusive interview earlier this month.
“And the journey for me will always be a journey with my wife, Joo Lee.”
The project is called Run For Gold (RFG), a 2,200km supported run to raise funds for the National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM), specifically for childhood cancer support services such as the Home of Hope
But beneath the logistics, training plans, and route maps sits a promise that began long before running entered the picture.
“This journey didn’t start out as a run,” SG explained during the interview.
“Joo Lee and I had planned to walk and see Malaysia — like Cuti-Cuti Malaysia — a leisure walk, just the two of us.”
He told SAYS that he already planned the route in 2020.
“I even have a name for the project; it’s called Jalan Gemilang… because the idea was to spend time leisurely walking around Malaysia.”
It was meant to be slow, unhurried, companionable, a couple seeing the country on foot after decades of marriage. They were married for 37 years.
But in 2024, Joo Lee passed away from Stage 4 gallbladder cancer. The leisure walk never happened, and SG’s plans for Jalan Gemilang sat unfinished on his computer.
Then came a book called From Grief to Love.
“I read a book after my wife passed about this guy called Laurence Carter,” SG shared.
Carter had walked 6,800km around the English and Welsh coast to raise funds for cervical cancer awareness after losing his wife, Melitta.
Moved by the book, SG reached out to Carter, curious to learn how such a massive feat was accomplished and what it took to plan such an undertaking.
It was this conversation with Carter that revived Jalan Gemilang, but transformed it into something more meaningful, making SG realise that a walk could be adapted as a run to his own strengths, and to Malaysia’s heat, terrain, and practical realities.
“How am I going to walk in this 30-degree heat with a 5kg backpack? So the idea came to have a supported walk. To walk takes a long time, but if I’m supported, I don’t have the backpack, so I could run — and it’s my passion to run anyway.”
SG speaks about Joo Lee with the easy familiarity of someone who shared a lifetime of inside jokes and impulsive adventures
“Throughout our marriage of 37 years, we have done some unusual things,” he told us.
“We tried to buy an island in New Zealand — Pakatoa Island — and later auditioned for The Amazing Race Asia. We didn’t succeed in either, but the thrill of the adventures and the time spent together is what mattered. We had no money, but we tried!”
Born in Penang in 1959, SG spent decades across engineering and business roles in Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, China, Russia, and the US, before retiring last year after more than 25 years with a Hong Kong publicly listed company. Outside of work, he enjoys reading, hiking, and running, having completed over 15 organised half-marathons across four continents, including one on the Great Wall of China.
An engineer by training, he raised two children with Joo Lee: Jacqueline, 31, born in New Zealand and now a doctor, and Kevin, 27, born in Singapore, an avid cyclist.
In recent years, SG has divided his time between Hong Kong and Malaysia.
In his sixties, when many of his peers have settled into quiet retirement, he has begun running seriously again, completing his first full marathon — since age 28 — at the TCS Sydney Marathon in 2025, with his son running alongside him for support.
His life with Joo Lee was marked by curiosity and mischief, an openness to trying things simply because they sounded fun
She studied Fine Arts in New Zealand, worked briefly as an interior designer, and later became a full-time homemaker while exploring creative hobbies such as painting, papier-mache, and 3D pop-ups during the pandemic.
And it’s that spirit that will fuel his 2,200km run across Peninsular Malaysia.
During our interview, SG recalled a moment from a campervan trip in Japan, driving a tiny 660cc van through cold mountain rain. In a video he recorded, the wind howls as he teases Joo Lee.
“That’s my wife,” he says. “I’d be egging her on.”
In the video, he tells her: “You’re crazy!”
“That is the word I’m going to say: ‘You’re crazy.’ It’s her determination to reach the destination that will egg me on with my upcoming journey,” SG told us.
When the run begins, he will carry her photo from a half-marathon close to his chest.
“Even though she’s not here, as I go past each of the towns, I’ll be carrying my wife’s picture with me.”
Though Joo Lee’s battle was with gallbladder cancer, SG chose childhood cancer as the focus of Run For Gold. The decision came after visiting NCSM.
“One of the things they showed me was this place called Home of Hope,” he told SAYS during the interview.
“Home of Hope is where they accommodate children with cancer and their caregivers, usually the mother. They come from rural areas to KL, they have nowhere to stay, and they can’t afford a hotel.”
What he saw there has stayed with him since.
“In the developed countries, 80% to 90% of children with cancer survive. In our country, the survival rate is 30% to 40%,” he shared while taking a pause.
“Usually, it’s the lack of resources, people give up, the kids have treatment halfway, and then they give up and so on.”
SG, having been a caregiver himself, understands the toll.
“I was a caregiver for my wife, so I know the suffering of the patient, but I also see the economic toll, the emotional toll, the physical toll it takes on these people. But I realise the toll for the children’s mother is worse.”
The father of two takes a moment to think about the invisible burden carried by those, especially mothers, who care for others.
“Mother’s love for children is unconditional; they’ll do whatever they need to do, but the frustration with the mother is that there’s nothing they can do. So I feel for the caregivers. If you can save one life and help one person, you’re saving two, actually.”
Funds raised from his run will support Home of Hope and related services, including counselling, recreation, and grief management.
“To stress: my journey is to promote awareness of cancer, but the fund goes to the children.”
The run begins on 28 March 2026 at NCSM Penang
SG plans to run 25 to 35km a day, resting every few days, completing the loop in roughly 90 days.
He won’t be alone.
An experienced ultra-runner will accompany him as a support crew member of two — someone who has completed a similar route before.
“We actually went for a five-day ‘recce’ in October last year,” SG shared.
“We took a car, and we drove around following the exact route to see where accommodations are available, where there aren’t any, and which areas are mountainous.”
During their recce, they even encountered wildlife.
The toughest section, he shared, will be crossing Johor, where heavy truck traffic makes the roads dangerous. However, safety plans are in place: early starts, reflective gear, and a support car managing hydration points.
SG’s training reflects methodical persistence rather than bravado
“My support guy tells me ‘feet on the ground’ is very important. You just have to get the mileage in. You just have to keep going until you do 25km, three days in a row. If you can’t run, walk.”
To prepare for the run, he has been training for distance, heat, and early mornings.
“I’m also training to wake up early — waking up at 5 or 5.30 in the morning so that I can run at 6 and finish by 11am or 12pm before the sun comes up. It’s too hot to run in Malaysia.”
He recently completed a 21km training run in Penang.
“I used to say to myself, as long as I finish within three hours, I’m happy. But I finished it in 2 hours and 48 minutes!” he shared while beaming with joy.
The senior is keenly aware that many people his age believe their adventurous years are behind them. He disagrees.
“The message to the senior people should be: you must stay physically active. Sometimes people are too cautious. Old people say, ‘I walk a lot.’ Walking a lot doesn’t do much. You’ve got to run a bit, get the cardio up.
“Don’t listen to other people who say you’re old.”
He points to Fauja Singh, a British-Indian Sikh runner known as the Turbaned Tornado, who began running seriously in his late 80s and famously ran the 2003 Toronto Waterfront Marathon at 92.
“He enjoyed what he was doing.”
SG also believes purpose keeps older adults connected.
“When I’m doing this project, I find it very surprising the network that I’ve built over the years and how helpful people are. Old people think, ‘I’m retired’, but if I find a purpose, my network is very useful.”
He laughs as he recounted how the idea for a website to document his journey emerged over lunch.
“I had a bowl of char kway teow with somebody I know who runs Exabytes. I had a bowl of char kway teow with him, and he said, ‘Okay, I’ll build your website for you, I’ll manage it for you.'”
The lesson, SG said, is simple.
“When you have a good reason, people are very supportive. Old people should continue to use their network for better good. Don’t waste it.”
SG shared that the planned run is not just about the route; it’s also deeply personal
In Melaka, SG will stay at the Casa Bonita hotel, built on the exact spot where Joo Lee grew up.
“She lived there until she was in secondary school. They demolished the house, and they built this hotel. I’m going to stay there on that day because it’s significant.”
In Penang, his birthplace, the journey both begins and ends.
“On my first day of running, I want to run past my primary school, my kindergarten, the place I grew up in Penang Street.”
And on 22 June 2026, his 67th birthday, he plans to close the journey with a final test: a 78km run around Penang Island in one day.
SG frames his upcoming journey not as a tale of tragedy, but as a path forward
“How I feel now is I feel I have a purpose to do something for people who are less fortunate.”
When asked what keeps him moving through life and its challenges, SG sums it up in three simple principles.
“Positive mental attitude, goal-directed, and self-motivated. Those are the only three things you need to remember in life.”
SG acknowledges the risks of the 2,200km journey, but he sees them as part of the challenge.
“Expect the unexpected. You hope for the best because there are so many variables: injury, getting knocked down. But that should not stop me from doing it.”
And if he falls?
“If I get knocked down, I will mark the spot with an X, and I will come back.”
For those who want to follow him along the way, SG has set up multiple ways to stay connected
His website, Run For Gold, will feature a live GPS tracker so supporters can see where he is each day. SG will also share updates on his Instagram and Facebook accounts.
A PDF version of the route will also be available, detailing his daily towns and meeting points for local running clubs and well-wishers.
He is inviting Malaysians to join him along the route, whether for a few kilometres or at community meet-ups in each state. Virtual runs will allow people elsewhere, including overseas supporters, to run alongside him symbolically, matching the same daily distances he covers.
As he moves through Peninsular Malaysia, SG will wear a cape featuring the flag of the state he’s currently in, changing it as he crosses borders. Along the way, he hopes to highlight the “unsung heroes” who encourage him, support childhood cancer initiatives, and meet survivors and caregivers at events coordinated with NCSM.
Original Article : Why This 66-Year-Old Man Is Running 2,200KM Around Peninsular Malaysia
