Gear up for a bumper Dis-Chem Ride for Sight 2017
The 2017 Dis-Chem Ride for Sight staged in Boksburg will be a special cycle event in many ways.
It will represent the 10th year of Dis-Chem Pharmacies being the naming sponsor of this prestigious event now in its 29th year.
The event has raised almost R4 million over the past nine years and this entire amount has and will continue to be donated to the UCT research project dedicated to finding treatments for genetic retinal blinding conditions such as Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), Macular Degeneration (MD) and dozens of other rare and devastating forms of retinal vision loss.
The South African National Council for the Blind has recently joined the organising team from Retina South Africa and will focus on promoting tandem cycling for blind athletes.
In another new initiative associated with the event, Retina South Africa have partnered with Ekurhuleni Metro and East Rand Cycling to transform cycling within the metro.
The 2017 Dis-Chem Ride for Sight will start and finish at the Boksburg City Stadium, corner Jubilee and Dudley Smith Roads, Boksburg South, on Sunday, February 19.
There are numerous benefits for cyclists with the event having been embraced and supported by the City of Ekurhuleni who will avail of their technical and managerial expertise and infrastructure to support the event.
This enhances the cyclists safety enormously on the day.
The 116km Dis-Chem Ride for Sight has once again been selected as a seeding event for the 2018 Cape Town Cycle Tour and novice cyclists and those not yet confident of participating in the longer ride can enjoy all the buzz of this premier event by riding in the shorter vita-thion 62km challenge.
On line entries have opened and you can enter on www.cyclevents.co.za or www.dischem.co.za. Entries will close on February 5.
All cyclists who enter the donation draw stand a chance to win special lucky draw prizes valued at over R100 000. These funds will be matched by the Dis-Chem Foundation so participants are strongly urged to donate generously.
The high value lucky draw prizes on the day have become a feature of this event and this year will be no exception.
For further information regarding the cycle race please contact Retina South Africa on national@retinasa.org.za or phone 011 450 1181 or contact race organiser Claudette Medefindt on 083 306 5262.
