After riding 650km to raise funds for a young girl battling cancer last year, Pieter Oberholtzer is in the middle of a similar ride to further his passion for supporting the CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation of South Africa.
 
The Capetonian retiree started Coastal Patrol Elleny last year to help Elleny Engelbrecht, who was diagnosed with leukaemia a few days after her sixth birthday. The mountain bike ride involved riding from Cape Town to George, a journey of 662km that involved 5458m metres of climbing as Oberholtzer and George Hamilton hugged the coastal routes.
 
Oberholtzer’s fundraising to help Engelbrecht’s families financial pressures paid dividends, and the youngster has been cleared to go to school after an intensive chemotherapy campaign.
 
Encouraged by her progress Oberholtzer has decided to continue his cycle journey where his ride ended last year, to add more money to the funds that The Cows raise for CHOC every year.
 
“The financial burden on the Engelbrecht family is less strenuous and we decided to launch a similar project to assist other children and their families with similar challenges,” said Oberholtzer.
 
“We started our ride in George where we stopped last year, and will be riding to Begha Mouth, east of Port Alfred,” he explained.
 
“The planned route is 666 km over a period of nine days from Saturday 7 September to Sunday the 15th.
 
“Our team consists of three members, two riders and one person in a support vehicle. We do not have any sponsors and will fund the project ourselves. We will be camping at night to keep the costs as low as possible,” said Oberlholtzer.
 
“The fight against cancer is not an easy road and therefore we also do not take the easy road. We will ride the Seven Passes between George and Knysna, the Grootrivier Pass, the original Boesmansrivier Pass and many more with our mountain bikes,” he added.