Non profit

The toughest race on earth, but it’s worth it

Sahara Marathon Effort to raise funds for Hungarian hospital receives corporate backing

Telco Vodafone Hungary has become the biggest single sponsor of the Marathon Effort For SOTE II (a fund-raising exercise which will see two local expats run almost six marathons in six days across the Sahara desert), with a massive donation of EUR 18,000 (HUF 4.71 million). Last week also saw official notice of what amounts to Royal interest in, if not actual patronage of, the appeal and the charitable foundation backing it.

Royal notice

The Duchess of Cornwall, wife of the heir to the British throne, accompanied Prince Charles on his official visit to Hungary last week. While in Budapest, the Duchess visited the Second Department of Paediatrics of Semmelweis University in Budapest’s District IX to meet staff and patients, including representatives of the Robert Burns International Foundation, which has supported the hospital for the last 13 years providing equipment, fixtures and other essential items to improve child care. She was shown around the Rheumatology, & Immunology, Oncology & Day Care departments of the hospital, which provides care for more than 100,000 child patients every year. She also unveiled a plaque given by the RBIF to mark the 125th anniversary of the founding of the hospital.

The Duchess also met representatives from Vodafone Hungary, who briefed her on the company’s initiative to provide an annual award to recognise outstanding efforts in corporate and social responsibility. The inaugural donation will go to the RBIF and the Marathon Effort For SOTE II.

The campaign initially aims to raise EUR 50,000 to construct mother and child distance trauma units to assist the recovery of critically ill children from within Hungary’s borders. To do so, Harry Harron, from Ireland, and Brit Simon Saunders will take part in what is known as the toughest foot race on earth: the Marathon des Sables (MdS). The pair are the only Hungary-based entrants in an international field of 750, and the first local entrants for five years.

Corporate sponsorships

Thanks largely to the generosity of companies such as Vodafone Hungary and Tesco, which has made a EUR 5,000 (HUF 1.31 million) donation, more than half of the appeal target has already been raised or pledged.

Medical sponsorship has come from FirstMed Centers Kft, who are providing ECGs and HUF 100,000, while Budapest Bank has put up HUF 200,000. The first sponsor on board was PURE Wellness, City Home & Lifestyle Centre on Ó utca, which has been offering the two athletes free use of its facilities during their training programme.

Other sponsorship has come from Amadeus Magyarország Kft. (which bills itself as the leading provider of IT solutions to Hungary’s tourism and travel industry), mineral water company Visegrádi, hotel group Le Meridien and sports goods and equipment store Decathlon Hungary.

Dr. György Beck, Vodafone Hungary’s CEO said that “care of the social environment and socially sustainable operations are extremely important elements of Vodafone Magyarország’s business strategy. Beyond thinking in terms of a responsible company strategy and shaping our activity accordingly, we would also like to recognise the efforts of other companies and foundations. We hope that the Vodafone Social Responsibility Award established today will develop into one of the country’s most prestigious responsibility awards,” he added

Harron and Saunders can be contacted via their blog, which can be found at http://harryandsimon.wordpress.com, and are on social networking site Facebook. Payment of personal sponsorship money can be arranged through the blog, group or PayPal.

The appeal

Greg Dorey, the British Ambassador to Hungary, officially launched the Marathon Effort For SOTE II, at the 13th annual Budapest Burns Supper on Saturday 30 January 2010 with the words, “It [the MdS] is not for the faint-hearted. Welcome to the world of masochists and lunatics.”

The challenge covers 250km (155 miles), which equates to about five-and-a-half marathons, and is run across the Sahara Desert over six days. Competitors have to carry with them food, clothes, medical kit, sleeping bag, in fact everything they will need for the duration, apart from water and a tent. (Water is rationed and handed out at each checkpoint.) Midday temperatures can reach 49°C (about 120°F), much of the day is spent running or hiking across uneven, rocky ground, and up to 20% of the total distance is over sand dunes.

“Even though we have run many 42km (26 mile) marathons and mountain marathons between us, this does not mean that we will find the MdS easy – we are doing lots of training,” Harron and Saunders say on their blog. Saunders is the elder of the two-man team at 38. Now a personal trainer, he is a former cross-country runner at international level. Pharmacist and entrepreneur Harron is 37. He has plenty of running experience of his own, and has already covered 500km (310 miles) of the same desert using wind power in the form of a kite and a buggy.

The distance trauma suites will allow the mothers of critically ill children coming into Budapest from the Hungarian countryside to stay with their children, an important aid to recovery. SOTE II has very few such facilities at present.

Directing the appeal and making sure the funds raised will be able to do the most good is the RBIF (www.rbif.org).

Borghi futuri