Story

Meet Stembiso

Stembiso is A 24 year old male. Stembiso has been a paraplegic since he was born.

He lives at home with his mom and dad who have not been able to find full time jobs as he requires a lot of attention. About 3 years ago Stembiso outgrew his wheelchair and now a round trip to the bathroom consists of a 60m crawl to and from his house on dirt.

Stembiso cannot talk but can communicate via hand signals.  He is an extremely shy but happy man who will thrive in his new chair. Stembiso’s parents are getting old and battle to carry him around and so he has now had to learn to crawl around everywhere.

Tim will be running on behalf of Rejuvenate SA to raise funding and awareness for people with disabilities. Rejuvenate SA is a Non Profit company whose core purpose is to provide those who don’t have the funds or means to mobility, whether it’s crutches, wheelchairs or prosthetic limbs. Tim has been an avid runner his entire life and  just enjoys pushing the limits. There is no real factor behind why Tim does these extreme races, he just enjoys the challenge.

Tim was introduced to Stembiso and saw the conditions he is living in. He couldnt believe that a  simple trip to the toilet means Stembiso has to crawl 30 meters to the toilet and 30 meters back. Stembiso outgrew his wheelchair about 3 years ago and hasn’t had the funding to get a new one.

Tim will be contouring Tor des Giants which is a 320km trail run through the Alps. There is a total of roughly 24km vertical elevation.

Rejuvenate SA is a Non-Profitable Organisation, founded by Travis who is a below knee amputee, whose purpose is to provide underprivileged people with the means to mobility. Our aim is to get people mobile and active, whether it’s providing prosthetic limbs, wheel chairs or crutches. With mobility comes life, and life is movement.

Founder Travis Warwick-Oliver underwent an amputation and soon learnt that having a disability is an extremely costly thing. In South Africa, there is barely any support from medical aids and hardly any government funding for people with these disabilities.

Rejuvenate SA aims to show the world what people with disabilities are capable of with the means of mobility.

To see what Tim will be running, watch the video below.