Arts
Reaching out with a run
Is there anything more rewarding than passing the finish line? Over the course of eight years the members of the Rotaract Club of Uptown have enhanced this feel good factor coupling it with a worthy cause.
RFTL 2016 donation being handed over to the Apeksha Hospital in October
“Run for their Lives” – the club’s annual charity run will take off this year on December 10 at the Colombo Racecourse. It’s a fun-filled 5 km run to raise funds for cancer patients. Through donations, contributions and registrations participants entering the run go that extra mile for every life they seek to support.
In 2010, a visionary group of Rotaractors banded together to help in providing for cancer patients. “These members saw those who needed their help and they wanted to do something about it,” says the 2017 co- chairperson of the run Rotaractor Ayantha Philip Martil.
Having started with only 300 participants in 2010 raising Rs. 300,000, the committee has come a long way, currently attracting over 4000 runners and raising over Rs. 19 million in contributions.
“With last year’s contribution we were able to donate a Triage Meter Pro Analyzer (a high-performance, comprehensive testing platform that provides quick diagnostics) and Celsite Access Port System (indicated for patient therapies requiring repeated access to the vascular system) for adults and children,” said co -chair Praveena Premakumar. They also built a cold storage unit to store medicine and samples which were previously stocked in commercial refrigerators.
“This is more than a project to us,” Philip shares, adding that the challenges of organising the run are all worth it when a life is given a “fighting chance against cancer”. President of the Club Krishan Balaji says that the process of organizing ‘Run for their Lives’ “reminds us all to be grateful for the people and things in our lives -there is someone out there who has lost even more.”
The club takes great pride knowing that we have “contributed towards the cause” so that no one is “fighting a battle alone,” says Philip.
| You can register now | |
| Registration for “Run for their Lives” is open until November 30 from 10 a.m. to 7p.m. at the RBN Performance store located within the Sri Lanka Tennis Association premises (No. 45, Sir Marcus Fernando Road Colombo 7). The run is on December 10. For more information check out their Facebook event pages and Website -www.rftl.lk. |