Surgeons for Little Lives

18 months ago, on the way back from my father's funeral in Zimbabwe, I was lucky enough to overnight in Johannesburg with a good friend Chris and his wife Tracey and new daughter Alex. Chris is a Paediatric Surgeon at Bardgwanath Hospital in Soweto, South Africa. He wanted to visit a particularly sick patient on his day off and invited me to go along. It was both a heart warming and heart wrenching experience at the same time. The fragility of these little patients was frightening, but the love and warmth from all the staff was incredibly inspiring. I was so touched. I am not medical but I wanted to do something....anything, to help these little lives.

Well, 4 months ago I found myself back in South Africa and of course caught up with Chris and Tracey. During my visit I learnt that Chris had set up a Charity to raise money to improve the facilities at Bardgwanath Hospital - well, the rest is history...... Chris knows I love Africa, I love mountain biking and I love children - it was an easy sell.....and so between April 22 and 30th I will be cycling in the Joberg2c ride. This is an off road mountain bike ride over 9 days traveling 900km (560 miles) from Johannesburg to the sea.

Surgeons for Little Lives is a charity which was started by the Paediatric Surgeons at Chris Hani Bardgwanath Academic. There are several projects the fundraising will go towards, some of which are listed below:-

- Paediatric Surgical Out Patient Unit incorporating parental sleep over facility
- Dedicated Paediatric Operating Theatre
- Breastfeeding Unit and Milk Bank
- Outside playground for recovering paediatric surgery patients
- Arrival and discharge pack project.

Your donations, no matter how big or small will all go such a long way to making a huge difference to the little lives of so many children. Please join me in making this journey possible.