Walk held to raise awareness against cancer
The walk started in De Waal Street and proceeded to Gelderblom Street, Frost Street and Enslin Street, ending at the starting point.
In commemoration of Women’s Day on August 9, approximately 100 residents participated in the 3km fun walk around Windmill Park that was aimed at creating cancer awareness.
David Johnson, Ashwill Kleinjong, Melany Lombard, Trevene Kleinjong, Lucas Johnson and Ramon Norman of Windmill United Football Club organised the event, and the Reiger Park Cancer Support Group supported them.
Eugene Martin, better known as Neelsie from the popular Afrikaans sitcom, Orkney Snork Nie, prayed and gave and inspirational speech at the event as he is now a pastor.
“I’m glad that I could be here. Happy to be in a crowd where there are some survivors. It was quite a remarkable experience,” said Eugene, who is also a motivational speaker.
“It’s not many of times where you see people coming together for one cause. People came together for this cancer walk, knowing that some people are going through some trauma, having cancer.
“This cause is important as not many people know what a cancer patient is going through. It’s nice to hear testimonies like: ‘Yes, I’ve been down, but I’m still standing’.
“I’m a speaker, I love to speak. I love to change people’s mindsets, bringing them from thinking this is difficult to bringing them to a place to where this can be done.”
David, one of the organisers, said the fun walk was aimed at creating cancer awareness.
“It was way to empower women on a special day. I realised people in this community may not know much about cancer, so we have to bring awareness to them.
“This event is about the community standing together,” said David.
Ashwill described the event as a success.
“Many people joined us and the response from the community was positive. I would like to thank the Reiger Park Cancer Support Group, EMPD, Eugene for their assistance and everybody else who contributed to the success of the event.”
The chairperson of the Reiger Park Cancer Support Group, Ulita Billings, and Marie Lottering also gave speeches and prayed at the event.
