East Coast Radio’s, Abi Ray, is staying true to her on-air promise made to Cara Breedt, Brand Manager of The Pink Drive last year: The Pulse presenter will be sporting her pink swimming attire in this year’s aQuelle Midmar Mile, on the weekend of 9 and 10 February.

After the moving interview with Breedt in October of last year, Abi, a passionate swimmer, is putting her all behind this campaign. In the hopes of enticing listeners and sponsors to come on board, she has announced that she will swim the Midmar Mile twice this year, if she succeeds in raising over R20 000.

“I am feeling great about this year’s aQuelle Midmar Mile. This year my swimming has definitely reached all kinds of exciting levels and I’m hoping people get behind me for this wonderful cause. The fact that I have the platform to allow my voice to be heard for such a worthy cause is such a bonus. I feel blessed that I can do this”, says Abi.

The Pink Drive is widely recognised, not only by its fluorescent choice in campaign colour, but also through the extensive coverage that it gains through its involvement in great sporting events. This is the first time that the campaign is moving into the open waters of Midmar dam and it is calling swimmers of all ages, men and women, to swim in pink.

The Pink Drive, which aims to enable all communities in South Africa to have accessible education, physical examinations and learn basic breast self-examinations, comprises of two breast examination mobile trucks and three educational cars.This convoy of vehicles runs every weekday and travels into various communities and work as a testing and cancer educational unit with a strong message about the benefits of early detection. It has reached over 600 000 women to date.

The first examination truck, costing R10 000 a day to run, conducts free breast checks and acts as the major education centre. The second truck, costing an astronomical R30 000 a day to run, is a Mammography Screening Unit which conducts full mammograms by professional  mammographers daily.

Running this programme clearly does not come with a small price tag. And what better platform to create awareness and to raise funds for the campaign than the world’s largest open water race? For R300, all swimmers will receive a goodie bag filled with a fabulous pink costume, pink towel, wetpack, sun block, energy bars, water bottle and much more.

“For the East Coasters that are swimming this year, I encourage them to swim for The Pink Drive. What they do to educate women about breast cancer is invaluable, the actual mammograms and clinical breast examinations even more so. They truly are a worthy cause”. says Abi.

To join Abi in her quest to raise money for this worthy cause, enter the Pink Drive swimming challenge by visiting the Pink Drive website (www.pinkdrive.co.za) after you have registered on the Midmar Mile website. However, if swimming is really not your forte and you prefer to keep your feet on dry land, all donations for this commendable cause are truly welcome and appreciated. Visit http://www.givengain.com/activist/90371/projects/4415/ to make your donation today.