Alex St John volunteered as an Assistant Teacher at Christel House South Africa (CHSA) in 2016. The avid runner wanted to raise funds for the school and took on the challenge to complete the grueling Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert. He did it and smashed his fundraising goals.
Set in southern Morocco and known as the Sahara Marathon, the race spans a total of 251 km (156 miles) to be completed over six days in some of the toughest running conditions in the world. Alex managed to finish in an amazing 80th place out of 902 runners, with a total time of 31 hours, 5 minutes. On top of this exceptional feat, Alex raised a whopping £42k ($58,000 USD) through his crowdfunding campaign to assist CHSA. His goal was to provide funding for education materials, tuition, uniforms, transportation, meals, healthcare, counselling, and career guidance for six students but nearly doubled his goal, raising enough to cover scholarship costs for 11 students for a year! “With the cheerful faces of the children it was hard to picture the conditions they live in on a daily basis,” Alex remembers of his CHSA teaching experience, “making the work of Christel House even more spectacular.”