Indian women support cancer patients
Sep 25, 2012
Looks like marathons are the in-thing right now – not those Kiprotich-like marathons. Different ones, those where people get out of bed early in the morning, unite and do a run for a cause, for charity.
By John Agaba
Looks like marathons are the in-thing right now – not those Kiprotich-like marathons. Different ones, those where people get out of bed early in the morning, unite and do a run for a cause, for charity.
Just the other week, people were running to raise money for the construction of a cancer ward at St. Francis Hospital in Nsambya and sh100m was raised. Then The Uganda Aids Support Organisation also had a charity run last Thursday, which also elicited good collections.
And yesterday, another hundreds of Ugandans took to the tarmac, courtesy of the Indian Women Association in Uganda (IWA). Purpose? To support the Uganda Cancer Institute at Mulago Hospital.
The marathon started at 7:30am at Kati Kati grounds, with information and national guidance minister Mary Karooro Okurut flagging it off.
It’s quite humbling this new trend in Ugandans, since waking up as early as 5:00am on a Sunday to be on the tarmac by 7:00am, all for charity, says something good about the runner.
Adult participants paid sh25,000 and children sh15,000.
And there were more parents who came out with their children just so they could raise more bucks for the cause. Even though most of them and their children walked the entire track, at least their taking part meant they raised money for the cause, whose races 10km or 5km long. Even people on wheelchairs participated – how nice!
Rubaga North MP Singh Katongole, tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia and wife, too attended the race. The people at IWA say they registered about 1, 800 people, and at least 1,500 ran. Emmanuel Kipseng won the 10km race, Edrisa Bukosi 5km, while those in wheels chairs lost to Kizito Nsubuga.
All winners jogged home with a sh1m prize, while the first and second runners-up won sh500,000 and sh250,000, respectively. Not that they ran to win – no! It was all for charity, and the prize, according to IWA, was only a motivation.
And thanks to whoever took part, the hundreds of people wasting away with cancer at Mulago Hospital will get some help going their way.