In a bid to raise awareness on the cancer scourge and raise funds to battle the deadly disease in Nigeria, a Lagos based Cycology Cycling Club is set to stage one of the biggest charity races in Nigeria.
It was gathered that the team will partner with the Child Survival Development Organisation of Nigeria, CS-DON, to ensure the 60km Run For A Cure Campaign holds successfully on Saturday, 2 November 2013 at Muri Okunola Park, Victoria Island in Lagos.
The team, founded in 2011 and boast of over 100 members has been involved in several charity rides this year, including the riding for the Special Olympics and the ride against polio held earlier in the month.
Team captain, Frank Ozomah stated: “Our aim as a Cycling Club is to contribute to the community by getting involved in various charity events to draw attention (through cycling in large groups), to issues we are all facing. Therefore we have decided to partner with CS-DON to highlight the problem people face with cancer as we believe it is a worthy cause to fight for.”
The organisers say the ‘Run For A cure’ is a bi-annual event, which takes place all over the country. “The next edition, coming up on Saturday, 2 November 2013, hopes to raise enough funds to Combat Breast Cancer, Cervical Cancer and Childhood Cancer,” eyeonthesports.com gathered in a statement from Okon Nya.
These diseases, the chairperson of CS-DON Mrs Onari Duke, believes can be prevented if detected early. “In the Western world, the rate of cure of childhood cancer is 80-90 per cent, but in Nigeria we only have between 10-20 per cent and that’s often times because it is detected way too late due to lack of awareness.
“Lots of informational materials will be distributed on Saturday, expert psychologists will be on ground to give a talks on the need for early detection and how women can examine themselves as well as the various diagnostic options available, Onari said”.
“Saturday’s event begins from 6am at the Muri Okunola Park, Victoria Island, Lagos with cyclists expected to cover 60km before returning to the start off point”.
The organisers revealed that the first, second and third placed cyclists will get trophies to be presented to them, while there will also be trophies for the oldest and youngest competitors in the run.
The Cycology Cycling Club however confirmed that there would be bicycles for members of the public who do not own one but want to participate in the ride. The club also hinted that all interested individuals can register for the event online via www.runforcure.org.
Meanwhile, in the schedule for the one-day race, registration of all participants holds between 6-7am, while the Cyclists, runners and walkers will start the race immediately the formalities have been concluded.
“The participants are expected to return to the start off point at about 8:15am, while the entertainment and race awards ceremony holds at 8:45am”.
