Everest Challenge - The South African Society of Physiotherapy

Physiotherapists “step” up to the challenge – Heather Talbot
Thousands of South Africans are diagnosed with leukaemia and other lifethreatening blood disorders every year. For some patients chemotherapy alone is
not enough and a bone marrow stem cell transplant becomes their only hope.
One such person is Ray Funnell. He received a life-saving bone marrow stem cell
transplant from his brother, after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of
leukaemia. Ray realised that he was fortunate to have found a bone marrow match.
Ray and his enthusiastic daughter Kimberly tirelessly help others to find a perfect
donor match by raising awareness and funds for The Sunflower Fund.
The Sunflower Fund is the only organisation in South Africa and one of two in Africa
that recruits and educates healthy bone marrow stem cell donors and pays for their
tissue typing. Currently, the cost to tissue type one bone marrow sample is R2000.
Ten solo athletes and nine relay teams (consisting of six team members) participated
in the second Everest 36 Hour Challenge that was held on 21-22 March 2015. The
target for each solo athlete and relay team was to complete 200 repetitions of the
Westcliff Stairs in Johannesburg. The dream of the organisers was to raise
R1million and add 500 new donors to the South African Bone Marrow Registry
through the event. They are anticipating that they will raise approximately R550 000
by the event’s fundraising cut off date of 2 April 2015.
There is a great synergy between attempting to complete 200 repetitions of the stairs
and the challenge that patients face when searching for their life-saving match. Two
hundred repetitions equates to 100 000 stairs. For most patients the odds are 1 in
100 000 in finding a match within their ethnic group.
To put it in perspective, completing 200 repetitions of the stairs equates to covering a
distance of 100km and ascending 10 600m. Ascending this height is similar to
climbing the height of Everest (8 840m) in a weekend in our own back garden.
The organizers and competitors of the first Everest 36 Hour Challenge were most
grateful for the voluntary assistance that the South Gauteng members of the South
African Society of Physiotherapy (SASP) provided to the competitors. This year the
South Gauteng provincial committee wished to take their involvement in this most
worthy event to another level. They not only arranged a physiotherapy station for the
competitors but also entered a relay team. The relay team was aptly named “Team
Compassion” by the event’s organizers.
The South Gauteng provincial committee hoped to increase the awareness of the
Sunflower Fund’s plight for leukaemia and other life-threatening blood disorders
amongst the SASP’s members, their family, friends and the general public through
the use of social media.
The South Gauteng’s provincial committee is proud of its relay team’s achievement
in finishing forth out of nine relay teams. The following physiotherapists were in the
team: Francis Rogan, Kerry-Leigh Tomaselli, Jane MacKinnon, Jeanne Marais,
Stacey Claase and Cara-Ann Human. The committee is grateful to the following
South Gauteng physiotherapists that volunteered to man the physiotherapy station
during the event: Heather Talbot, Caren Fleishman, Retha van den Berg, Samantha
de Bruin, Trevellyn Murray, Sue Coldrey, Alison van Veijeren, Robyn Johns,
Brendan During and Matime Daile. The committee is also appreciative of BSN
Medical’s generosity of donating some of the strapping that was used to assist the
competitors during the event.