'I'd show them even less mercy than my parents showed me': Kelvin Tan not worried if future kids inherit blindness

Just last week, Singaporean singer and Project SuperStar 2005 runner-up Kelly Poon had her first child, a baby boy.

This had us wondering — will Kelvin Tan be next?

After all, the 42-year-old who beat Kelly to become the inaugural winner of the singing competition got married just last year.

Kelvin told AsiaOne in an interview last Friday (Nov 24) that he and his wife — occupational therapist Inez Hung — have finally received the keys to their BTO flat and are waiting for it to pass defect checks and undergo renovations.

"I definitely do have plans to have kids, it's something that's on my bucket list," he revealed.

"For me, to have a full life, I wanna have a family, I wanna go through the challenges of taking care of a kid to get a feel of how my parents felt with me being rebellious."

Though he didn't want to "burden" himself or become stressed with the desire to have kids either, he wanted the "cycle" of having a family to continue.

"I don't want the cycle to stop just because I can't see," Kelvin, who is blind due to Leber's congenital amaurosis, added.

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His wife also has a visual impairment in the form of amblyopia or lazy eye, but Kelvin isn't worried that their future kids may inherit their conditions.

"In fact, them being blind is probably my last worry," he said, noting that it was something he and Hung already knew how to deal with. "I'd be more concerned that my kids would have other disabilities."

If his future kids did turn out to be visually impaired, Kelvin added that he wasn't going to go easy on them.

"I'd show even less mercy to them than my parents showed me, because I'm their only blind kid, right?" he said, adding that he wouldn't be the kind of parent "to give way to them" just because they had a disability.

He said: "There'll be no excuse, you don't use your blindness against me."

When's his next gig?

Kelvin is currently working in his alma mater Lighthouse School, which caters to students with visual impairment and hearing loss, teaching them IT skills, Braille, music and Character and Citizenship Education (CCE).

He said: "I'm more laidback now. I'm generally doing more engagement-based stuff, I'm not really making new stuff (music)."

This doesn't mean we won't get to see Kelvin perform in the near future though.

On Dec 1, he'll be performing at the Extra•Ordinary Stars fundraising concert alongside Taiwanese singer A-Lin, American illusionist Cyril Takayama and local stars like Benjamin Kheng and Glenn Yong.

The concert is organised by Extra•Ordinary People, a local charity and Institution of Public Character (IPC) which aims to "holistically support persons with special needs while striving for an inclusive society through family-centred and community-supported initiatives".

The fundraiser will benefit three IPC charities: Extra•Ordinary People, Happee Hearts Movement and YMCA.

While Kelvin remained tight-lipped about his set, he told us he "obviously won't be dancing" but singing for sure.

"Definitely familiar songs that Singaporeans generally know me for," he added.

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drimac@asiaone.com

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