All Things Rugby breakfast

JOHN Allan, Ian McIntosh, a surprise guest and the voice of South African rugby, Hugh Bladen, will make up an interesting panel for the All Things Rugby fundraising breakfast event hosted by Durban Aviation Centre at Greyville Racecourse on Thursday 29 May.

The breakfast will raise funds for Rescuetech, a unit of volunteers involved in rescuing people in disaster situations as well as animals in distress. Operations have been conducted by DAC Chief, Jon Sargood, also chairman of Rescuetech, and as such have assisted Rescuetech with airborne search and rescue operations. Many will remember the tragic events after the collapse of the Tongaat Mall not so long ago, and this is where the Rescuetech unit was involved in searching for survivors under the rubble for days.

Ricky Smit, the founder of the Nicholas Rey Trust Foundation, decided to set up the Trust as a result of the tragic accident where former Miss World Penny Rey Coelen’s son Nicholas suffered a severe brain stem injury after a polo accident. Being interested in horses herself, Ricky decided to raise money for people injured in horsing accidents. With this in mind she became involved with the Sharks and introduced the race horse Shark Attack, which became part of raising funds for the trust. It was Keegan Daniel who named the horse at an official gathering at Summerveld Equine Hospital.

Being the dedicated person that she is in everything she does she recently decided that learning to fly would be her next goal in life and so joined Durban Aviation Centre to obtain her PPL and pursue her flying dream. It was through DAC and Chief Flight Instructor, Jon Sargood, also heading up DAC, that she became involved with Rescuetech, a voluntary search and rescue organisation that does untiring work behind the scenes in the rescue operations of motor accident victims and other life threatening situations with very little financial assistance.

Rickey decided to carry on with her tireless work with the Durban Aviation Centre and help yet another good cause with an All things Rugby breakfast fundraiser. Forming a dynamic marketing team at Durban Aviation Centre with Senior Flight Instructor, Christiaan Grobbelaar, things were set in motion and once again the horse racing fraternity have come on board.

After the great success story of Shark Attack, Ricky decided to approach the racing fraternity once again and made a call to Koos de Klerk, chairman of the KZN Breeders Association and Owner of Yellow Star Stud in Mooiriver. He immediately agreed to come on board and offered to donate the two year racing career or the filly, Travilla to be auctioned at the breakfast event.

The breakfast panel are sure to be entertaining and will be discussing all aspects of the game from club rugby to the many controversial issues surrounding the laws and refereeing decisions in the modern game. Needless to say there will also be a discussion on the upcoming Super 15 match between the Sharks and the Stormers on Saturday 31 May.

For anyone wishing to attend the All Things Rugby fundraising breakfast for an affordable price of R300 or R3 000 table contact Ricky Smit at 083 231 6458.