Personal message

Last year I ran my first Comrades ultra marathon, the grueling 87km 'up run' from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. I dedicated that run to my mum who had recently passed away after a long battle with Cancer. There was literally blood, sweat and tears, a dose of gastro, a few lost toenails, and a promise to never ever run this crazy race again. Well that was June last year, and 2020 is a new year...and now i've convinced myself, I'm only half way through the journey, and need to complete the 'down-run' to get my special back to back finishers medal, this time 90kms back down to Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.

This year's challenge is to run the Comrades to raise some funds and create opportunities for the young children of the VUSA Rugby and Learning Academy.  

Growing up in a small country town I saw first-hand the power and impact of sport on youth development - I hate to think what we would have gotten up to if sport and recreational opportunities weren't available to us.  This unfortunately is the reality for thousands of impoverished children in South Africa resulting in challenges like poor mental and physical health, addiction, homelessness, crime and family breakdown.  The VUSA Academy works with youth in the Langa community offering a structured after school programme to address some of these challenges.  They do this through the provision of academic support in English and Maths, rugby as the primary sport and providing each child with a hot meal at the end of each day.  (A hungry child cannot function). The Academy also works with 4 registered ECD centres as early intervention is key and creates recreational opportunities to expose children to a world outside of their four corners.

I have set my initial target at R5000 as even this small amount already makes a huge difference.  It covers the transport costs to their Saturday morning rugby match.  It covers a coach’s salary for a month (coaches are all employed from within the community and continue to be upskilled).  It feeds 3 children for a year and pays for 2 children’s educational support for a year.

Please watch the short clip above to see why this programme has crept into our hearts.

"Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up."Dean Karnazes

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