Mandy is set to make history

Date: 2012-10-10

Mandy Rapson was born with internal hip dysplasia, something that would have her wheelchair bound by the age of 10. After multiple hip operations at the age of 4, she learnt how to walk again and has lived an energetic life since.

On the 26th September adventurer and charity worker Mandy Rapson will embark on a voyage that will take her into history as she seeks to cycle unassisted from Cape Town to Durban in a fundraising and awareness mission that has been named Home2Home.

Rapson was born in Durban but has lived in Cape Town for the last 9 years, where she works as Operations Director for an NGO called LifeXchange, which works with at risk youth.

"The idea of cycling from where I live to where I was raised has sparked the theme Home2Home and this theme will not only be lived out in the journey through me staying in people's homes all along the way but it will be a part of the message of LifeXchange that I will spread with and through the cycle trip," said Rapson.

The distance between Cape Town and Durban is a little over 2000 kilometers and Rapson plans to complete the trip in exactly a month, taking in places such as Franskraal, Hamburg, Kareedouw and Butterworth along the way. Her longest day's ride will be the 155km's between Port Elizabeth and Port Alfred.

Asked what led her to embark on such a trip when she was not even a cyclist to begin with, Rapson said: "My passion is to see people do and achieve things that they never thought was possible.

"Three years ago I left my paying job to work with troubled youth from disadvataged areas, an unusual place for a young white girl to find herself. Too often this group of people are rejected and written off by the world as 'trash' and 'too far gone' and no one gives them a second thought.

"We teach our guys that regardless of where they come from, their education or their circumstances, how much money they have, or don't have; that if you really want something no matter how big or absurd it may sound, it IS possible if you commit and put your mind to it.

"So, this cycle trip is not just a fundraising exercise it is also a teaching opportunity for me to show them this through my own life. They know that I don't cycle, have financial backing or fancy equipment. What they know is that I have a dream and a goal and with that clear goal in mind the 'how' will start creating itself as I begin unfolding what needs to happen in order to make this dream a reality."

Aside from simply completing the trip Mandy's goal is also to raise money for LifeXchange and she has set herself a target of R150 000. The money raised will be used to sponsor youth at risk who have been identified and are on the waiting list to join LifeXchange where the annual cost of mentoring a person R30 000.

For more information contact: Mandy Rapson: 0847810312 LifeXChange: https://www.lifexchange.co.za, mandy@lifexchange.co.za, https://www.facebook.com/cyclehome2home

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