Dr. Daniel Morkel
MB ChB (Orth) (Stell) FCS (SA) (Orth)

Ortopediese Chirurg – Orthopaedic Surgeon

Pr Number 2806053
E-mail: danie@danmorkel.co.za

EPIC 2007

Dear friends, colleagues
My cycling partner, Evert Meintjies, and I have been entered for the 2007 Absa Cape Epic Mountainbike Race.

This is an international, 900km mountainbike stage race. It takes place in March 2007. It will take us eight days to complete the race that follows some of the roughest and most inaccessible routes between Knysna and Lourensford Estate in Somerset West. During the race all teams are responsible for their own bicycle maintenance along the way. Over five hundred teams will be taking part. As you can imagine, this event receives wide media coverage.

The international participants competing in this event are worldclass and winning the event is certainly not an option for us. Our goal is to give a good account of ourselves and our reward will be the satisfaction of preparing for and finishing an endurance event of this magnitude.

We have been cycling 15 to 16 hours per week, starting at 04h30 in the mornings in preparation for the event. Although it is a privilege to participate in this event, our families and colleagues make great sacrifices to enable us to participate.

So much time and effort goes into the preparation and participation in this event and we both feel that the effort could be of benefit to someone else, especially since our participation was made possible by Polaris Capital.

A good friend of ours, Hanno Burger, is a 12 year old boy suffering from a debilitating disease called Dystonia. I have known him since his birth and he is a very talented and very pleasant young boy who for the past 2 years has been affected by this neuromuscular disease. At this stage he is paralysed in his lower limbs and is therefore unable to walk. He uses a wheelchair or crutches to get around. Despite his disability, he is an extremely pleasant and positive young fellow.
His credo is Hou Aan Nooit Nooit Opgee ( Hang on, never, ever give up)

He would love to have a special wheelchair to participate in wheelchair races, which is the only sport he can participate in at this stage of his illness. These specialised hand-driven wheelchairs are expensive and he will need about R40 000 to purchase one. He will need further funds if he qualifies for surgery at a later stage.

We are therefore challenging our friends and colleagues to make a donation for Hanno's wheelchair. It is also Hanno’s wish that the Hanno Burger trust fund will be of benefit other disabled sportsmen. He recently won the first handcycle race that he entered. At this event the conditions of wheelchairs and lack of decent equipment was distressing to him and that is where he would like to make a difference.

There are two ways you can participate.

The first is you can pledge a certain amount per kilometre that we complete (last year it was 920km for myself and 720km for my partner. This year the race is 880km long.

The other is to pledge money based on the position we achieve in the race and thereby challenge us to try our best for a great cause. We will give everyone regular updates via email

The money can be deposited in the following trust account:

Hanno Burger Trust
FNB Stellenbosch
Branchcode: 20-06-10
Account number: 62121852968 - cheque account

Please email me your pledge so that we can follow-up and also so that we can add your email address to our buddy list to give you regular updates.

Regards

DANIE MORKEL
danie@danmorkel.co.za