Update on Lize-Mari

Lize-Mari's mom, Linda, kindly gave us an update on how Lize-Mari is doing and developments on her treatment in France.

Unfortunately, 3 weeks ago, the Geelhuizen family were informed by Professors in Paris that Lize-Mari would have to undergo surgery before having Proton Therapy due to size of the tumour (approximately the size of an egg). This was not good news as it meant more expenses (which SA medical aid would not pay for due to the operation occurring outside of SA) and more time before Lize-Mari could commence Proton Therapy, as she would need 2 more weeks to recover from the operation. The family managed to contact some Professors in Cape Town who may be able to perform the surgery here in South Africa instead, and a meeting has been arranged for Monday 2nd November in Cape Town to discuss this possibility.

However, Lize-Mari is doing relatively well after recovering from stomach ulcers which have grown as a result of stress and and the medication she uses for her headaches. She has been attending school as and when she feels well enough. Recently, the headaches have become more severe and she has been bumping into things - this could be due to complications with her balance or concept of distance due to the tumour, something which Linda will chat to the UCT Professors about next week.

The family are really hoping for a positive outcome in this regard, so let's support them all we can and keep them in our prayers. We'll let you know the outcome of the meeting next week.

Introducing Lize-Mari

We believe in life. Your life.
We believe in living every minute of it with every ounce of your being.
And that you must not let cancer take control of it.
We believe in energy: channeled and fierce.
We believe in focus: getting smart and living strong.
Unity is strength. Knowledge is power. Attitude is everything.
Extract from the Lance Armstrong Foundation Manifesto

Thank you to all our Sponsors!!

It is really amazing to see how generous people can really be! There have been a few exciting developments recently about our cancer fighting journey which I would love to share with you.


A BIG thanks to Anatomic for kindly sponsoring us cycling kit and for arranging the design which was inspired by Lize-Mari herself! We asked her what she would like to appear on our cycling kit and she said 'sunflowers'! See below the great design which Anatomic put together for us. We will definitely be assured of being spotted on the road. Should anyone be interested in buying a cycling shirt to support our cancer fighting journey, then please let us know!
Another highlight has to be the amount of money we've raised so far for Lize-Mari's treatment - R20,720!!! This week we had 3 large sponsorship amounts and we would love to mention them and then of course, challenge other corporates and individuals to beat this !

• Thank you to WSP Group for their generous donation of R5,000. For more information on this great company, visit http://www.wspgroup.co.za/


• Thank you to Kerry-Lyn Honey for holding a 'Honey for the Soul Art Exhibition' where artwork was auctioned to raise money for Lize-Mari. We are happy to announce that R5,500 worth of artwork was sold which will be donated to the Lize-Marie Trust.

• Thank you also to the Intsaka Group for kindly donating R1,500

Another exciting development is that we emailed the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF), LIVESTRONG, to tell them about our initiative. To be honest, we weren't really expecting to get a reply since they must receive thousands of emails from people and families struggling with cancer. But, to our surprise, they replied to us! We are now in the process of liaising with them to see if we can partner with them - so watch this space!

We have been chatting with Linda, Lize-Mari's mom about her health and the upcoming trip to France. We hope to have an update for you soon as details on her treatment in France are being finalised.

Going from Strength to Strength

We have been working hard the last couple of weeks to raise awareness about our Cancer Fighting Journey in order reach our target of over R25,000. It has been amazing the amount of response we have received (from even as far as the UK!) and the generous amounts that have been donated. I am so pleased to announce that we have raised over R12,000 thus far - this is an amazing achievement and we are very grateful to everyone!

Regarding publicity, we have approached Ride Magazine to publish a diary of our adventure over the 14 days - we are hoping to have this published in the Jan / Feb issue next year. The cycling club that we belong to in Cape Town, Club 100, have added our appeal to their website so we are hoping to reach their club membership of over 170 people. Our next move is to approach local newspapers and magazines to print our story and encourage people to support us. If anyone has connections in those fields, then please let us know!!

And we have to give you an update about our tandem! She (I'm not sure why we consider her a female!!) took part in her first race this last weekend - the Engen Dynamic Cycle Challenge in Wellington, a 99km event. Jaco and a friend of ours, Lance, took her on her maiden voyage which I think she totally loved since they were the leading tandem for about 70kms of the race. It was when the pair stood up to start climbing, that suddenly the chain snapped, which left them stranded on the side of the road in disappoinment! I was playing support vehicle and had to come collect them on the side of the road. I thought it was much better luck that it happened in the race than while we were in the middle of the Northern Cape somewhere!! So this weekend we will be making some repairs and doing a few checks to get her (the tandem) back into 100% working order.

Training Ride to Cape Point

We decided that yesterday would be a great day to start with some training for our cycle from Cape Town to JHB. It was 6am on Sunday morning and low mist and cloud hanging over Cape Town when we both clipped our shoes into the tandem and off we went. As we rode through Cape Town, it was very quiet but we spotted more cyclists on the road as we wound our way through the Southern Suburbs towards Constantia and Muizenburg. The wind along the route to Fish Hoek and Simonstown was strong and we tried to keep a good steady pace - both of us getting used to each other's rhythm on the bike. We stopped at Olympia Bakery for some carbo-loading and the almond croissant and custard pastry topped up our energy levels to help us with the long climb up to Cape Point. We ended up doing the Argus Route but since Chapman's Peak is still closed, we decided to test our hill climbing strength up Ou Kaapse Weg. That's when we had to really concentrate on pushing those pedals and keeping the speed up as we struggled to push the heavy tandem up the long drag. After about 20 mins of hill climbing we were treated with a steep long downhill on the other side which was technically tricky since a lot of strategic leaning is required by both of us in order to get round the corners in one piece! It ended up being a glorious day of sunshine and 120kms later we pulled up to our front door. Our bums were a bit sore and the knees had taken strain after all the hills but it was great to be back on the bike again!

An update on the sponsorship front: since the launch of the Cancer Fighting Journey we have raised over R6,500!! This is really fantastic and we thank all our sponsors for their enormous generosity! We challenge all of you out there to keep on emailing your sponsorship amounts to sponsorship@pag.co.za in order for us to reach our goal of raising over R25,000. In addition to this, we have been offered bicycle pannier bags to use for transporting our clothes and spares on our journey. And we possibly may have 2 other cyclists (yes, 2 other MAD cyclists) who are wanting to join us on our adventure.