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Two adventurous Cape Town doctors who set off on an unprecedented and extreme 3 000km endurance run along the Mekong River in Southeast Asia to raise funds for the Western Cape child protection organisation Home from Home, have completed one third of their journey.
Sports scientist Dr David Crombie and veterinary surgeon Dr Mark Barron began their epic journey in the city of Luang Probang in Laos on 3 November 2012 and plan to complete the challenge at Phuroc Cung located on the South China Sea by 21 January 2013. Having tackled landslides, extreme humidity and monsoons, the ultra-athletes have nevertheless managed to complete 1, 050 kilometers, appearing to be in good health and well on their way to reaching their goal.
Crombie, who has been running the Endurance Challenge Charity Trust (ECCT) since 2007 to raise funds for vulnerable children in South Africa, said the Mekong run would be a 3 000km challenge undertaken over a period of approximately three months, from November 2012 to January 2013. The challenge is equivalent to about 72 consecutive full marathons or 143 half marathons. In the weeks prior to their departure the two men were training more than five hours a day each, covering up to 250km of trail and road runs.
The importance of the run
Home from Home founding member and development director Pippa Shaper said funds raised from the Mekong River Challenge will ensure that more South African children in need will get the chance to live in secure, loving and protective family homes. “We hope that this knowledge and the faces of the children who they will be helping, will keep them going through the tough times that lie ahead. David and Mark – on behalf of everyone at Home from Home, and all the children we protect, we salute you, and assure you of our prayers in the coming months for your amazing journey.”
Home from Home is an organisation which sets up and runs small, community based, family foster homes. Each home is a “normal house in a normal street” with no more than six children cared for by a foster mother, or foster parents. The children and foster parents are supported and supervised by Home from Home, its fulltime social workers and local community groups. Home from Home is currently running 26 homes in 12 communities in the Western Cape, caring for around 170 children, and many more homes are in the planning stages.
The runners can be tracked via their blog www.mekongriverrun.com
For more information about Home from Home please see www.homefromhome.org.za.
(Press release, December 2012)
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