A grueling journey to Cape Town

Imagine running 1490km from Joburg to Cape Town and then competing in the grueling Two Oceans Marathon. A dozen of motivated runners are trying to accomplish this challenge in order to raise funds for charity organisation, Make A Difference (MAD).

One of the members of this 12 man team is Maragon School’s head of sport, Shaun Raaff.

“The main focus of the charity is to identify talented learners from less fortunate backgrounds and support their education and life skills development up to the point where they are ready to enter the job market,” Raaf explained to Northsider, before he dashed off from starting line in Ruimsig, on 11 April.

“With this in mind, we are charged up and ready to take on the challenge.”

Maragon’s marketing manager Belinda Espag said the runners are expected to reach Cape Town by 19 April.

Afrikaans singer and heart throb Willem Botha also took part in the starting line-up of the race.

“I’m only participating in the first 21km of the event as part of a relay team. But I believe in the work that MAD charity does and by doing this small thing I feel that I’m helping them out in a big way,” said Botha.

The group aims to raise R1 million for the charity, according to Raaff.

“We are currently standing on R61 000 but we have nine days left and I hope that people will start donating and help us to reach our goal.”

He encouraged readers to follow the group on their twitter handle @Mad2Run in order to follow their progress and to make a donation towards this worthy cause by visiting MAD’s website.

Details: www.madcharity.org