In the spirit of Christmas and giving, the Ex Professionals (Expro), an association comprised of former South African sporting legends hosted its annual ‘Toys for Joy’ fundraising lunch at Greyville Racecourse in Durban last week Friday.

After sitting out 2020, chairman Johnny Louch and his team managed to organise the event which saw well over 800 toys donated by former sporting royalty who were all present for the day’s festivities.

The lunch saw almost R100 000 raised in the auctioning of rare sports regalia and items previously belonging to sporting legends such as former lightweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight world champion Roberto Duran and Olympic gold medallist Chad le Clos.

“It means so much to the children that benefit from this initiative. We want every child in our Rainbow Nation, especially those less fortunate, to experience the joy and excitement of getting a new toy on Christmas morning,” Johnny Louch said.

The day’s festivities began with a welcome and some light-hearted humour from renowned horse-trainer Paul Lafferty, followed by a moment of silence in remembrance of members who lost their lives to Covid-19, which was followed by a speech from Louch who emphasised the importance of joy.

“We all need to start laughing again. We’ve been through some terrible times and we must always remember to enjoy life as it has become much shorter,” he said.

The auction began after the lunch break, with Duran’s glove selling first for R8000. This was followed by a signed copy of ‘The Sunshine Boys’ and a signed 1938 three litre bottle of Ian McIntosh wine. The biggest seller on the day were Le Clos’s three bronze, silver and gold medals that he won at the FINA Swimming World Cup, which sold for R22 000.

The day concluded when Umhlanga Rotary Club president Lisa Sukdev, inducted Expro member Angus Napier as an honorary member of the club.

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