For Oh Boon Keng, everyday life would be impossible without his mother, a woman of few words but loads of love.
The 20-year-old Ngee Ann Polytechnic student suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a degenerative disease that means he is weaker now than he was five years ago, and getting weaker still.
'I was born with the condition, but we discovered it only when I was eight years old. I could walk until I was 10, but now I need help with simple tasks like moving from my wheelchair to my bed,' he said.
But Boon Keng today is an international para-athlete, a motivational speaker and a musician, and has just been accepted to study social work at the National University of Singapore - all of which he credits to his mother, 62-year-old Madam Lim Kwee Lan. 'I could not have got this far without her,' he said.
She accompanies him to school daily, waiting around the campus while he is in class so that she can be there when he needs help getting out of his wheelchair. It is something she has been doing since he was in Secondary 2 at Commonwealth Secondary School.
'Sometimes I'd rather my friends not help me with certain things, like going to the bathroom, and I'd rather have my mother,' said Boon Keng, who has three older sisters.
Thanks to his mother's support, he is busy with not just school, but physiotherapy sessions, sports activities, band practices and association meetings as well.
He is part of an a capella group and has represented Singapore in the 4th Asean ParaGames, where he won a bronze award for Boccia, a traditional sport for athletes with neuromuscular disabilities.
He has also conducted talks at the Muscular Dystrophy Association on positive thinking, drawing on his personal story.
He opted to do social work at university because 'I want to be able to give back to the community in some way'.
While many may praise Madam Lim's devotion as an act of extraordinary sacrifice, for her, it is far more simple. 'He wants to study, and as long as he wants to study I will support him,' she said.