Kim documents lonely Comrades run for charity

COMRADES Marathon runner, Kim Jackson, dedicated what was going to be her 25th Comrades to Bright Eyes Centre in Berea.

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Kim, a friend of one of the Centre’s volunteers, was invited to the Centre’s Christmas function last year and was so moved by the work at the Centre, that she committed to running her Comrades this year in aid of Bright Eyes.

“We were incredibly moved by this offer as this was going to be Kim’s 25th Comrades. A big one to dedicate to us! We met with Kim three months ahead and planned our fundraising events and more, only to have Comrades cancelled. We were devastated!” said Cathryn Aylett from Bright Eyes.

A week ago Kim contacted Cathryn and Carron Strachan again to surprise them with the news that she was going to run anyway!

“Despite not having the mileage she needed or nearly enough training she felt that this was something she needed to do! We jumped on board and decided to throw all our efforts behind her,” said Cathryn.

Kim started in a very cold zero degrees in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday, and set off on the route.

“We set out to gain support through once off donations in support of Kim and also a pledge per kilometer to keep her going. We ran the event live off our Facebook page and Kim updated us every 10km with a video and a few photos. It was thrilling!” said Cathryn.

Kim finished at Bright Eyes Centre in Berea shortly after 6pm. A sum of over R20 000 was raised.

“It was cold and dark and very strange celebrating with a small, socially distant team of essential team members but we were elated nonetheless,” she said.

Donations were still coming in on Monday through Zapper and the Centre’s bank account.

“The centre is deeply grateful, our little ones are going to need a lot of extra work to recover from the lack of therapy and intervention over lockdown and this is expensive. We are so relieved to have the funds available now to do this.

Bright Eyes is a privately funded NPO and therefore depends on the generosity of our local community. Thank you to everyone who cheered Kim on!” said Cathryn.

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