Francois Jacobs, a blind runner from Centurion, South Africa will take part in this year’s Comrades Marathon along with Australian Markus Schär to raise funds for the Fred Hollows Foundation South Africa.
The Fred Hollows Foundation (FHF) is an international development organisation focusing on blindness prevention. The vision of the Fred Hollows Foundation is for “a world where no one is needlessly blind.” The Foundation is inspired by the work of the late Professor Fred Hollows, an Australian ophthalmologist who championed the right of all people to high quality and affordable eye care.
The Foundation has been working in South Africa since 1999, and the Fred Hollows Foundation South Africa was officially incorporated in January 2001.
Francois, who will be 40 in June, and works as a business analyst at Momentum in Centurion says that from an early age, he dreamt of running the Comrades. “I remember watching the Comrades on TV and being hugely inspired by the overwhelming sense of accomplishment and goodwill that was so tangible that it came across even to me as a blind person who could not even ‘see’ what’s on the TV screen,” he says.
However, Francois didn’t start running until his thirties. When he turned thirty, and “the reality of ageing eventually hit,” Francois took up cycling, as a social sport. A few years later, however, in 2007, Francois decided to participate in an Ironman event and had to take up running as well.
Francois has since taken part in several cycling and running events including the Pick ‘n Pay Argus and three Ironman Events, one of which was in Australia. Despite not being his best in terms of time, Francois says his first Ironman, which he did in 2008, is his biggest sporting achievement to date.
Francois decided to tackle the daunting Comrades Marathon when the Fred Hollows Foundation contacted him through the SA National Council for the Blind, to ask whether he would like to run the marathon with Australian Markus Schär, who runs a website and blog called “Run4Vision”
By participating in the Comrades Francois says he hopes to send the message that “we need to look wider than our own immediate problems. We all have something to contribute to society, and the fact that my own sight cannot be restored by this initiative doesn’t mean I cannot make it possible for others.”
Fifty-year-old Markus Schär from Sydney, Australia says the idea for “Run4Vision”
This year’s Comrades will be Markus’s second. He participated in the race in 2003 after South African friends told him about it. He calls the race the “ultimate human race” and says that the 2003 Comrades is the “greatest and best road race” he has ever participated in.
Markus says that having run for the Fred Hollows Foundation for the past three years, he wanted to make this year’s Comrades a special one, and contacted the Fred Hollows Foundation South Africa, which is based in East London, to put him in touch with a blind South African runner. Markus was then put into contact with Francois, and they decided to take on the challenge together.
Markus has been training and racing with blind runners at the Achilles Running Club in Sydney to prepare, but says that he and Francois will only meet in person a day prior to the race.
Francois hopes that the pair finishes the race within 11 hours, but says that “ultimately we just want to finish the Comrades before cut-off.” Markus’s goal, too, is finishing. “The Comrades is a journey. A journey sharing the road with thousands of others, knowing we will all be different people at the end of this journey. Anyone who asks what time you did at the Comrades does not understand the race.”
By running the Comrades with Francois, Markus says he hopes to show that “it is possible to live your dreams regardless of living oceans apart, speaking different languages, having a physical disadvantage or not. Every person has the capacity to make a difference, to help others, to look a bit further than our own personal horizon. If our run together can inspire just one person, we have succeeded.”
Why The Fred Hollows Foundation? “A cataract operation can turn an economically inactive individual into someone who makes a real contribution to society,” says Francois. “A cataract operation does not only give someone their sight back, but also changes their life in a big way.”
“Too many people miss out, don’t have or can’t afford simple health care,” Markus says. “The Fred Hollows Foundation focuses on these people, and makes it possible for these people to see again. In South Africa, more than 250 000 people are needlessly blind. The Foundation’s programme’s objective is to restore sight to those who remain isolated because they are cataract blind.”
