Time to Run Again
Much-needed Money
MY GOAL
Athletes with a Cause
We have many athletes in South Africa hitting the roads and trails to raise money for or awareness of important, deserving causes, and we want to give them the publicity they deserve for their efforts.
The Race to End Alzheimer’ s
By Frankie Hunt
The Race to End Alzheimer’ s( REA) is all about a group of ordinary people who run to create awareness of Alzheimer’ s Disease, and to raise funds for a dedicated team of trainers to train people who care for Alzheimer’ s patients. REA was started in 2014, after my wife Heila had been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’ s at the age of 56. Although there is no coming back from this disease, I felt a need to do something constructive and make some sort of contribution with regard to Alzheimer’ s.
I have been an active runner for some 30 years, and one morning while out running with our regular group, I discussed my desire to do something with my fellow runner Nadine. Right there we decided that we would do a relay run from Johannesburg to Durban to create awareness of this horrible and sadly misunderstood disease, and raise some much-needed money to train people who care for Alzheimer’ s patients.
I launched the initiative with Helen Charalambous, whose late husband Steve had also been diagnosed with Alzheimer’ s in his 50s, and we teamed up with the nonprofit organisation Alzheimer’ s South Africa. That first REA took place later that year, with 20 athletes running in pairs of two in the relay, and it proved so successful that we repeated the relay in 2015. Members of our team have also participated in the three-day AfricanX and Oxpeccker trail running events as well as the Fish River Canoe Marathon, and we have put on several golf days, all to raise awareness and funds.
Time to Run Again
However, with funds to continue the training of the carers starting to run low, we decided we couldn’ t just let the training come to an end, so this year the REA team of 12 runners and five support crew went down to the Southern Cape in September to run the 4 Passes relay race from Mosselbay to Knysna. The race took place from 25 to 29 September, appropriately putting it close to World Alzheimer’ s Day on 21 September.
The five-day Four Passes route goes over four of the historic mountain passes built by legendary road-builder Thomas Bain in the second half of the 1800s, and starts with a 92km stage on the R328 from Mosselbay to Oudtshoorn, running via the Robinson Pass. Day two is 69km of gravel roads from Oudtshoorn to Prince Albert, going via the Swartberg Pass, and that is followed by a 112km stage from Prince Albert to Oudtshoorn on the R407, climbing the Meiringspoort Pass. The fourth day is the longest at 122km, using the R62 to get from Oudtshoorn to Uniondale, and the tour concludes with an 86km stage on the R339 from Uniondale to Knysna via Prince Alfred’ s Pass.
Much-needed Money
The total distance we ran collectively was 481km and what an incredible experience it was, but best of all was that our latest run has helped to push our fundraising total since 2014 close to the million Rand mark, and we are most grateful to all those corporates and private individuals who have contributed to our cause. This money has been and will continue to be used to fund the team doing the training of carers, which is headed up by Denise Fredericks of Alzheimer’ s South Africa.
The team uses the fund raised to render the following services
• Dementia care training to carers in dementia care facilities who could not otherwise afford training.
• Awareness talks at churches and Nursing Homes to family members and carers of people suffering from dementia.
• Providing stipends and cell phone top-ups to 10 trained field workers in Soweto, Pretoria, Mamelodi, Atteridgeville and Johannesburg, who do home visits to assist with washing patients and giving advice on dementia care.
This team is totally dependant on REA funds, and they are true angels doing a wonderful job to make the lives of many unfortunate people just a little more bearable. It is an honour to be able to run to aid their work.
Frankie Hunt in action
If you would like to contribute to REA’ s cause, more info and banking details can be found on the group’ s Facebook page, called The Race To End Alzheimer’ s. Alternatively, you can e-mail Frankie Hunt at frankie1 @ mtnloaded. co. za.
Images: Courtesy Frankie Hunt
12 ISSUE 100 NOVEMBER 2017 / www. modernathlete. co. za