Meet Taariq Stokes: The man running 704km for mental health
Taariq Stokes joined J Sbu in studio today as he prepares to take on a 704km run from Johannesburg to Durban.
Taariq will be taking off on the 20th of November with 11 other runners from Walkerville, Johannesburg to Moses Mabhida in Durban. The run will take about 76 hours.
The 25-year-old, along with 11 other runners, are hoping to raise R50,000 to support mental health institutions and establish community workshops to offer support to men who are struggling with mental health issues.
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The journey started when Taariq found a group on Facebook called Man of Valour.
The group had a lot of motivational quotes and words of advice for men struggling with mental health.
He scrolled further and saw a post about a run from Joburg to Durban, he DM’d the page admin with “I’m in”.
“There’s officially 19 of us involved with the crew (drivers, medic, chef etc). I’ll fly out on Wednesday morning to Joburg. We starting from Eldos (Eldorado Park). We’ll be using the back route,” he explained.
Phillipa Feher, Head of Marketing at Mr Price Sport, and Zola Phoswa, who handles Public Relations, surprised Taariq.
According to Phillipa, she was going through her social media when she saw Taariq’s story pop-up.
“Men’s mental health is close to my heart,” she explained.
She added that doing something of this magnitude through sports was beyond admirable.
Phillipa and Zola came in with the intent to help Taariq and his 11 team members.
“We came in to talk to Taariq and kit him and the team for their run. We also want to join them at the end at Moses Mabhida,” said Zola.
For more information or to support the cause, click here.
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