ABILITY activist Chaeli Mycroft and her running partner, Mark ‘Muddy’ Ferreira, completed six ultra-marathons in six days, followed by the Comrades Marathon on day seven. They used Kearsney College as their base on day five, receiving a special cheer when they passed the college gates during Comrades.

In 2017, Mycroft became the first adaptive (assisted wheelchair) athlete to get her Comrades back-to-back and has completed five Comrades Marathons to date, finishing this year’s Up Run in 11:44:21.

Also read: Piet Wiersma wins Comrades Marathon as Gerda Steyn makes history

Mycroft was born with cerebral palsy. As a consequence of this, she can only use her arms and legs to a limited extent. Nevertheless, she keeps looking at all the things she can do and continues to push her boundaries.

She’s an internationally recognised ability activist and was awarded the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011, the Medal for Social Activism from the Nobel Peace Laureates in 2012 and the World of Children Youth Award in New York in 2013.

In 2017, Chaeli won the Turner Social Change Prize and, in 2018, was welcomed as an Obama Foundation #AfricanLeader. In 2019, she was appointed to the Global Leadership Council of Generation Unlimited and, last year, won the Forbes Woman Africa Young Achiever Award.

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