THE Comrades Marathon Association recently celebrated a successful charities handover in Botha’s Hill where it handed over more than R6 million for this year’s Up Run’s official charities.
The total sum of R6 477 983 exceeded the 2023 donations by R1.5 million and was achieved through a combination of charitable donations with runners’ entries, merchandise sales at the Comrades Expo, the Race4Charity platform, the Toyota Win-A-Car competition and funds raised by the greater Comrades community.
“We are impressed with the fundraising efforts of our runners and supporters in this year’s Comrades Marathon and are proud to hand over the funds to our deserving charities,” said CMA Charities and CSI convenor Pat Freeman. “The commitment and passion of our Amabeadibeadi charities inspire us all to give back and make a difference. Their grassroots initiatives and daily hard work is what makes South Africa great.”
The funds were distributed to the six official Amabeadibeadi charities, namely the CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation SA, Sanparks Honorary Rangers, Durban and Pietermaritzburg Community Chests, Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust (HACT), Rise Against Hunger (RAH) and Childline KwaZulu-Natal.
Runners who chose to Race4Charity raised R5.2 million with Mahesh Ratanjee, being the top fundraiser for 2024, raising nearly R200 000 for his charity of choice, Community Chest.
Jana Calmeyer, who ran for the Childhood Cancer Foundation, raised R142 000 while Dean Wight raised the third highest amount of R110 000 for the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust.
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