Miles for Smiles

At last night’s 27 Dinner in Cape Town, we enjoyed a very inspirational talk by extreme athlete David Grier. In 2006, Grier and Braam Malherbe accepted the first ‘Miles for Smiles‘ challenge and ran the entire length of the Great Wall of China (well over 8000kms!) from the Gobi Desert to the sea. This incredible non-stop journey took over 3 months to complete and raised R550 000 through sponsorships.

Miles for Smiles raises money for Operation Smile South Africa, an organisation that repairs childhood facial deformities through surgeries, giving children back their smiles and changing lives. Operation Smile South Africa is part of a global alliance of Operation Smile foundations and chapters dedicated to providing free treatment to children and adults suffering from cleft lips and cleft palates.

In 2008 Grier and Malherbe accepted a second challenge, this time to run a “smile” around the foot of Africa. The route was another non-stop behemoth, beginning at Oranjemund in Namibia and running along the coast of South Africa, the pair finished at Ponto d’Oro in Mozambique some 3300kms and 81 days later. This epic run raised over R2-million from sponsors helping to transform the lives of hundreds of children.

Now for the next challenge, David Grier will be kayaking from South Africa to southern Madagascar. He will then run the length of the island to the North from where he will attempt to kiteboard back to South Africa!

Back at the 27 Dinner, David had brought along two coffee table books (one about each of their epic journeys) which were auctioned off on the night – it was great to see the support for the cause.

Keep an eye on the Miles for Smiles website for more information and to see how you can get involved.