Charity remains top of mind

Cradock – With the 2023 edition of the Fish River Canoe Marathon approaching and entries steadily flowing in, the charity focus of the event has always remained a strong driving force behind the Klein Karoo classic taking place from October 6-7.

The main recipient of support from the two-day race is the Cradock Cancer Care Unit. This locally-based group do a lot of work helping those diagnosed with cancer in the area and the race’s popular Spot the Croc competition has traditionally be a successful fundraiser for this worthwhile cause.

This year the Cancer Care Unit has made a slight change to their fund-raising efforts and unfortunately the ‘croc’ has had to be thrown away as it’s been weathered by the river over the years.

“It’s a bit disappointing that we won’t be having the Spot the Croc competition this year, but the Cradock Cancer Care Unit has given us another awesome initiative to raise funds,” said the chairman of the organising committee Herman Marais.

“This year they have had special Versus socks designed with their logo on them and paddlers are encouraged to buy a pair in order to enter the raffle at the end of the race.

“The raffle will see us give away another Knysna Racing boat like we have in previous years, along with a number of other great prizes.

“Just supporting the efforts of the Cradock Cancer Care Unit should be enough for paddlers to buy some socks. The more socks paddlers and supporters buy, the more entries they get into the lucky draw.”

Despite the Cancer Care Unit being the main focus of the charity drive at the Fish, there are a number of other initiatives that paddlers support in their own personal capacity.

Often the CHOC Cows are another charity that is supported by paddlers and it’s always exciting seeing the black and white paddlers on the river.

Early-bird entries for the event close at midnight on Friday after which entrants will pay an extra late-entry fee. Paddlers can enter via the Canoeing SA entry portal at https://paddler.canoesa.com/