Dubai: The task was extreme: To ride a bike alone from Dubai and cross 30 countries to the UK to raise funds for children in Gaza with congenital heart disease.
Three months, scores of insect bites, a painful knee and numerous potentially fatal crashes later, British expatriate Richard Mitchell said it’s all worth it knowing that 200 sick children yearly can now have hope for a better life.
Mitchell, 57, raised $150,000 (Dh550,935) during his three-month Healing Hearts Journey for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF). Mitchell funded his entire trip to ensure all proceeds will go to the cardiac unit that will be equipped to help at least 200 children heart patients annually.
“There are about 300 children born every year in Gaza with congenital heart disease and because of the political issues that they have in Gaza, there’s no way for the kids to get out and be treated,” Mitchell told Gulf News upon returning from the trip on Saturday.
Mitchell said funds collected from sponsors and individual donors during his trip will go a long way.
“One amazing statistic is this — for every $1,000 that the PCRF raise, they turn that into Dh62,000 worth of healthcare for the children. This means that the benefit that is derived from the money you give is actually exponential,” Mitchell said.
The challenges he met on the way proved miniscule compared to the cause. Weather was unpredictable and so was his two-decade-old bike that crashed at almost every opportunity it had. Once in the middle of a hailstorm, the bike slipped, pinning Mitchell’s lower body to another vehicle.
“There was 350 kilogramme of [steel] on top of me. I was slightly bruised, but I turned out all right,” Mitchell said.
Amid the moments when he braved 9 metres of snow above his head, endured hailstones the size of peas, feared for his life crossing treacherous paths, Mitchell said the experience was a humbling one.
After giving up eight months of his life for the project, including the awareness campaigns and preparation for the trip, Mitchell is back to work this time but is open to doing more charitable works in the future. This, he said, is his way of giving back to a community that has been so good to him.
PCRF, meanwhile, announced on Saturday its new project called Climb for Hope in January which will take three teens up Africa’s highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro.
One Syrian and two Palestine youth, who lost their legs in the conflict and one through disease, will trek with 20 PCRF volunteers to raise funds for PCRF. The three teens have received prosthetic legs from PCRF and will show the world that nothing can stop them from reaching new heights.
