By Ashok Ramsarup :: The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) has raised almost five million rand for charities in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The amount officially increased by R4 945 096 as compared to last year.

The Association handed over the funds raised by runners, supporters, sponsors, and the public to the charities at Hillcrest near Durban this morning.

CMA Charities and Corporate Social Investment Convenor Pat Freeman has lauded the fundraising efforts of the runners and supporters. During the handover of the charities, Freeman said he was proud to hand over the funds to the deserving charities.

He expressed his sincere gratitude to everyone who contributed to this year’s Comrades Amabeadibeadi charity drive.

The almost R5-million raised had been 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 Comrades ambassadors, staff and race organising committee volunteers.

The funds were distributed to the five official Amabeadibeadi charities, including the Durban and Pietermaritzburg Community Chests, Childhood Cancer Foundation (CHOC), Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust (HACT), Rise Against Hunger (RAH) and WildTrust.

The runners who decided to Race4Charity raised R3.9-million with Dean Wight raising almost half a million rand for the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust. Once again maintaining his status as the Top Charity Fundraiser. Justin Hand who ran the Comrades under the banner of the Community Chest managed to raise just over R280-thousand, while Jenny Lincoln raised the third highest amount of R66-thousand for CHOC.

CMA Chairperson, Mqondisi Ngcobo has expressed his gratitude to the charities for their daily work in making South Africa a better place. In the spirit of the Comrades Marathon, Ngcobo said: “We should all give back in one way or another.

“I am constantly inspired by the commitment and passion that drives our Amabeadibeadi charities to deliver on their mandate and to go the extra mile.

“We convey our sincere heartfelt thank you to our runners, supporters and partners who came on board to build on our fundraising efforts, most notably Toyota South Africa who generously sponsor the much-loved Toyota Corolla Quest for the annual car give-away on race day, raising more than R270-thousand for charity,” he added.

Funds raised for the various charities:

Childhood Cancer Association of SA (CHOC): R 1,689,440

Community Chest: R 1,017,599

Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust (HACT): R 1,121,936

Rise Against Hunger (RAH): R 659,316

WildTrust: R 456,805