Lize-Mari Starts High School

Lize-Mari started her first day of Grade 8 with a lot of excitement and anticipation. Not knowing what to expect she was very nervous. We fetched Chante (one of her best friends) on the first day and both of them walked into the school together to start their new journey. On the first day as part of the initiation process, they had to tickle a statue, bark up trees, serenade some of the boys and many more embarrassing things. Lize had to design a name card reflecting her details and a baby photo, which she had to carry around her neck every day as identification. She also had to look after a baby rock which she painted and carried it with her every day. The school organised dress-up days where Lize had to look like a granny and we caked her hair with white powder. She looked beautiful anyhow!



Another dress up occassion was when the Grade 8's had to go to school as babies with real nappies and baby bottles. One night they all slept over at the school and were kept up all night while the prefects told horror stories to scare them. They had great fun at the “sokkie”, played water games and had a water melon fight. So far Lize has enjoyed the experience of being at high school!

Her highlights of the last two weeks include:
- Auditioning for a main role in the “Groentjie Concert” and getting a part.
- Making a lot of new friends.
- The good looking boys waving at her.

Her lowlights for the last two weeks include:
- Having to wear stockings filled with raisins.
- Pains in her legs and a few headaches. But despite all this she has still participated in everything.

The last two weeks have set a very positive trend for the Grade 8’s and I must commend Hugenote High for the positive way in which they conducted the initiation. They built the morale of the pupils and did not degrade them. Well done Huggies!
By Linda Geelhuizen

The Cancer Fighting Journey: How it All Began

A lot of people ask us, “So who’s crazy idea was this anyway?” And to be honest, we’re not quite sure of the answer ourselves. The Cancer Fighting Journey developed slowly over time and wasn’t something we just woke up with one day and decided to do. There were several events in 2009 that formed the seeds of what was to become the most daring and challenging adventure we’ve ever undertaken. The idea to cycle from one city to another had always been in the back of our minds and several opportunities to participate in an organised tour from Johannesburg to Durban had always fallen through. Even though this would have been an achievement, we wanted to do something different; something that not many other people would ever want to attempt.

Then, quite by chance, Jaco stumbled upon a tandem for sale on the website bid-or-buy and mistakenly bought the bike instead of bidding for it! So now we had a tandem and a dream of wanting to do something great. Over Easter time, Jaco and I visited his parents on the farm in Piketburg and took our bicycles with. His parents wanted to do some sailing on their boat in Saldanha which seemed like the perfect opportunity to cycle there and then get a lift back home with them that evening. We so enjoyed covering the 120kms together that one of us suggested we do something similar but for a number of days in a row. I think it was Jaco who dropped Johannesburg into the conversation and I thought December 2009 would be a great time because then we could get leave. We also agreed that we wanted to do it for the benefit of a charity or a person and we left it at that.

We decided to put some feelers out there to see if anyone had cycled from Cape Town to Johannesburg before and what route they had taken. We wanted to avoid the N1 at all costs due to the heavy traffic experienced on that route with all the holiday-makers heading to the coast in December. We posted an article on The Hub website and didn’t expect any replies. But someone did come back to us, saying they had done the journey just before the Argus in 2009 with a whole group of cyclists and had completed it in a relay manner. They even provided us with Google maps of their route, the towns they stayed in and the accommodation details! It was then that we got excited and started investigating it a little further. At this point, Jaco decided that it would be best to attempt the journey on a tandem as he would be stronger than me after spending a whole month racing in Belgium in August 2009.

PAG gave us the perfect opportunity to focus our efforts when each Business Unit / team was encouraged to do some kind of fundraising activity for Lize-Mari Geelhuizen. We had originally wanted to support people with disability but were delighted that we could help the Geelhuizen’s that were part of the PAG family

“And why would you want to cycle up to Johannesburg? Its uphill all the way you know?” was another comment we got. “Well why not?” was our answer. We knew that none of this was going to be easy and we wanted to prove everyone wrong that didn’t believe that we could do it.

And prove them wrong we did! In a spectacular fashion! We survived, our marriage survived and the memories we created will survive in this blog forever!

Cycling Down Memory Lane and Exciting News

I had the strangest experience on Sunday morning! Cycling on my own bike without my lovely husband to help me steer, brake or pedal! What a strange phenomenon to be totally in control again and having to concentrate on where I ride and how fast. It took me a while to get used to the single bike again and actually found it quite hard (I think I got lazy on the tandem!). Jaco and I decided to take a trip (or cycle) down memory lane (actually up the N7) to Piketberg (where his parents live) which we passed on day 1 of the Cancer Fighting Journey to Citrusdal. It was a 120km ride which I thought would be a piece of cake after the 1800-odd kilometres we had covered in December, but how wrong I was!!! I mean, there were no heavy pannier bags to carry, no heavy tandem to push along and only 120kms to cover - it should be a walk in the park!! I should not have underestimated the journey as I felt very weak, could not keep up with Jaco's pace and we were cycling into a slight headwind. It got so bad, that Jaco decided to connect my single bike to his bike with an elastic bungee cord so that he could tow me along!! Very embarassing, but it worked! The cord is linked from my handlebar stem to his saddle stem and when taught, leaves about one wheel space between our 2 bikes. So he had to pull me all the way to Piketburg and I was hating life much better! How the wheels had suddenly turned! So alot more training is needed on my side to fine tune this cycling machine.

Other VERY exciting news is that Reach For A Dream Foundation will be contacting the Geelhuizen family to arrange for a dream assessor to visit them and discuss with Lize-Mari what dream she would like fulfilled! Thanks so much to a great friend of ours, Bronwyn Timm for her networking to make this happen. We will definitely keep you posted on what RFAD decide to do for Lize-Mari.

Everything just seems to be coming together for the Geelhuizen family as they have almost reached the R900,000 mark in terms of money raised for the trip to France, the operation and the Proton Therapy. Come on guys, let's do some inspiring of hope by helping them accumulate the R1million they need to give Lize-Marie the treatment she needs!

Happy New Year But Not So Happy Bike!

Happy New Year to all who have been following this blog - we wish you all a year of fulfilled dreams just as we experienced in 2009! Don't keep saying 'I wish' - make your wishes a reality and just do it!

I think our lovely tandem enjoyed the plane trip back to Cape Town this morning as she accompanied Jaco back home and must have been thankful that we were not cycling her home by road (however sad we were about it!). But we all agreed (including the tandem) that she needs a little rest and TLC at the moment since we discovered that the rim of the backwheel has actually split due to the strain (and the many pancakes and cheesecakes). So we are in the process of searching for a new 40 spoke rim in order to build a new backwheel. Hopefully she'll be back on her feet (or wheels!) in no time at all as Jaco and I hope to ride her next weekend to Piketburg (along the N7 route that we covered on the 1st day of the Cancer Fighting Journey) to visit his parents. Yes, we cannot get enough of it, you're right! Fingers crossed we get a new wheel built in time.