Second chances: Mum, 54, with Parkinson’s joins beauty pageant to show strength and self-love

SINGAPORE – Ms Devika S.P. Maruthanayagam sparkles in her red-and-white sequinned gown, her cropped hair framing large brown eyes and high cheekbones.

The 54-year-old Singaporean semi-finalist of Miss & Mrs ASEAN 2026 looks every inch the beauty pageant contestant, but her winsome smile hides the almost-constant pain she grapples with as someone with Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s is characterised by muscle stiffness and tremors, challenges with movement or the lack of it, as well as difficulty speaking, among other symptoms. It is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease globally after Alzheimer’s. There is no cure.

Ms Devika was 45 and busy raising her then four-year-old daughter when she was diagnosed with the disease in early 2017.

The alumnus of Broadrick Secondary School had always loved running and keeping fit, until her gym coach noticed in 2016 that she had stopped using her left arm to hold on to the treadmill rail.

Then, her mother observed that Ms Devika turned her entire torso to look at something behind her, instead of just her head.

When she started experiencing involuntary leg shakes, she saw a neurologist, who diagnosed her with stage four Parkinson’s. There are five stages to the disease.

Ms Devika has no family history of it, although her 78-year-old mother, who has stage four breast cancer, was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s too.

“My whole world fell down. I cried. My girl was very young and I couldn’t take it,” she says, tearing up at the recollection. The former civil servant’s daughter is now 14, and she also has a 30-year-old son.

Devastated by the news, she refused to leave her three-room flat in northern Singapore for eight months, partly due to fear of falling.

Her daughter’s cries for mummy to go outside with her only made her sadder, she says.

One day, she decided to try walking around the estate. When she did not fall, she gradually increased her distances on flat surfaces as well as up and down staircases.

In 2018, she joined the weekly Saturday runs organised by recreational group Thaarumaaru Runners, which took her to different parts of the island.

She ran so much that she has accumulated more than 30 medals – many for virtual runs during the Covid-19 pandemic – which she displays in her living room.

But four years later, her condition worsened until she “couldn’t hold a cup or open a plastic bag”. She underwent deep brain stimulation in June 2022 to improve her movement symptoms.

According to the website of American non-profit Parkinson’s Foundation, this surgery involves implanting a system in the brain that sends electrical pulses to areas controlling movement.

Three months after the operation, she went back to her daily runs.

Despite muscle stiffness, she prefers to move around and says she feels better after exercising.

She clocks up as much as 20km walking and jogging about four times a day, she says, showing this reporter her daily workouts on a fitness app, as well as her Asics running shoes with worn-out soles.

In between, she does the marketing, cooks for her daughter and walks her to school.

In 2021, she and some friends from her running group ran 50km around Singapore to mark her 50th birthday. They started at 5.30am and hit checkpoints such as Woodlands, Hillview and Alexandra over 11 hours.

She no longer runs with them as her condition has gradually worsened – she used to run 1km in four minutes, but it takes her twice as long now – but still meets them socially.

She keeps herself motivated by caring for her daughter.

“If I’m not around, there’s no one to settle her,” says Ms Devika, who is living off her Central Provident Fund savings and rents out a bedroom in her flat to help with expenses. Her husband is not in the picture.

“My daughter keeps to herself, but I can see that she is affected.”

The teenager was in school when The Straits Times visited, but Ms Devika proudly shows off a pink-and-purple paper star bouquet the girl recently made for her.

Beauty beyond labels

In November 2025, Ms Devika’s friend saw the publicity for inclusive pageant Miss & Mrs ASEAN and encouraged her to sign up so she could inspire others.

She was the oldest of 80 applicants and the only one with a severe medical condition.

“During the training, I wanted to leave. I didn’t want to be a burden. But the pageant director said, ‘You’ve been chosen because you can do it, so give it another chance’,” she says of the thrice-weekly, two- to three-hour training sessions in which she learnt about catwalks, stage presence and pageant grooming. She took breaks whenever she felt tired.

Miss & Mrs ASEAN’s director Lavania Priya, 37, says: “Devika’s journey shows how belief, support and dedication restore confidence, amplify voices and reaffirm dignity.”

She started the contest with the belief that “every woman deserves an equal opportunity to be seen and heard”. There are no rigid entry criteria such as age, marital status or good health.

Ms Devika was among the top five contestants in the talent show portion, where she demonstrated a fitness routine that included sit-ups, a shoulder stand and a plank. Instead of speaking, she wrote out her message for the routine as her speech is slurred.

She made it as one of 12 semi-finalists.

“I was happy,” she says. “My daughter said, ‘Go, mummy’, and sent her friends the photo (of me in my gown).”

Ms Devika did not participate in the pageant’s swimwear photo shoot in late January because a fall had left marks on her face and arms, but she still whipped up a feast for her fellow contestants, including garlic prawns, teriyaki chicken and various sandwiches.

The pageant experience has given her renewed purpose, even though she failed to make the finals, which will be held on Feb 28.

“I met a lot of new people, even though I’m the oldest. Normally, I stay in my room, but now I’m going out and taking the train,” she says.

She hopes to share more about her Parkinson’s journey on other platforms and welcomes others with the condition to join her in this journey with “pride, strength and self-love”.

In 2025, she spoke at a Mother’s Day event organised by the Singapore Indian Association’s women’s wing.

“Live life to the fullest. Nobody wants to have this illness, and if you can’t do anything about it, just do what you can do and make yourself happy,” she says.

Her wish is simple – to have good enough health for her children’s biggest milestones.

“I want to be around for my son’s wedding next year and my daughter’s (when she grows up),” she says, her eyes welling with tears. “That’s the only thing I want.”