Ten East London cyclists are training to do the impossible.
Ride 1,500km — 105km a day — for 14 days.
Why? For children.
Not just any kids, but Eastern Cape children who are hurt, many of them burnt or suffering. And because of an extraordinary medical story.
The Eyabantwana — For the Children Trust was established in 2012 by the surgeons who save these children’s lives on a special operating table in a specialist theatre just for children.
In 2014, Carte Blanche’s Making a Difference Trust completed their R20m futuristic paediatric operating suite in Frere Hospital on September 30.
It was a total X-factor game changer, according to the head of paediatric surgery at Frere and Cecilia Makiwane hospitals, Prof Milind Chitnis, and his deputy, Dr Yashoda Manickchund.
From being a city where children were sent at great expense to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, Buffalo City in the Eastern Cape has become one of the top four units of paediatric surgery in SA and has an international reputation for innovation and care.
Only 10 or so children are sent to Cape Town annually.
The rate of surgery and treatment in the two state hospitals, as drab and criticised as they may be from the outside, is astounding.
Annually, these hospitals, surrounded by a rural conundrum of child poverty, treat 3,000 children in the outpatient clinics.
But it is the surgery rate that startles the newcomer: each year, the paediatric surgery department admits 1,200 — and operates on 1,100 children aged from birth to 12.
That is an average of three operations every day of the year, meaning that since 2014 about 10,000 children have received specialist paediatric surgery, which includes neurosurgery, orthopaedic, ear nose and throat, cardiothoracic, maxillofacial and general paediatric surgery.
Much of this is digitally assisted, low-impact laparoscopic keyhole surgery.
These delicate, life-changing interventions are carried out by a team of four specialist paediatric surgeons, four registrar surgeons and six medical officers.
This reporter visited the theatre suite and wards and found so much to believe in, and some sad scenes.
The theatres are busy with little children on the table, or nurses and moms bringing the infants back to consciousness in the recovery area.
It is all so tiny, and caring and full of toys. It is not an easy place emotionally, and people who work there show steely resolve and compassion.
Upstairs in the burn ward, the children must share wards with adults, but most of the patients I saw were kiddies, all bandaged.
But there was another sight which stuck. Each mom or gran is given a comforting pink gown and there they are, a sea of moving pastel pink clouds hovering over these tiny umber bundles, puffing, feeding life back into their little ones.
And everywhere in this drabness there is the work of the Eyabantwana trust, doing fun murals, or refurbishing the washing bays, or paying for high-spec medical instruments, working so hard to back that medical team.
The doctors say the work is exhausting. Back, shoulder and leg muscles and joints stiffen up when standing all day, and there is joy and some heartbreak.
They work so hard that peering up at the TV screen to do laparoscopic surgery is a blessing but then it is eyes down on the child in their hands.
It is surreal to see so many people, with their fun designer scrub caps all dedicated to such a tiny little human, hands and feet stretched out in silent unconsciousness.
And it is this story which makes the pedals go round and round for 90 road cyclists in East London, who have formed the quirkily named “Grandads Army” social club.
Their goal is to support paediatric surgery through the trust.
In the group are a wide-cross section of hard-working city people, many of them professionals.
The momentum generated by the regular training rides has led to this second Eyabantwana Heritage ride, which heads off on Friday October 27 and returns, 16 days later, to the Old Selbornian Club on Sunday, November 12.
And at the front of the peloton will be the paediatric surgeon who, together with Prof Chitnis, started the Buffalo City paediatric movement 28 years ago. Prof Colin Lazarus is shy of media attention, and enjoys getting on with the job.
But this year, at 80, he has been persuaded to reach out to the public beyond the cycling group’s dedicated local network of supporters and encourage people to follow the ride.
“Every cent counts,” he says.
The riders do not draw a penny from the trust — in fact, each rider must raise at least R15,000 in sponsorship for the trust and then pay all their own costs on the ride.
The Daily Dispatch has joined the community spirit and will be represented on the road by columnist Deloris Koan, whose travels will be updated daily on DispatchLIVE.
There will also be a news clip every afternoon so that readers can track the event. Look out for a few features on the project in the build-up written by this reporter.
Donate at www.givengain.com-eyabantwana, or transfer money to Eyabantwana — For the Children Trust, Nedbank, Beacon Bay, current account 1138181366.
DispatchLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.