SPAR My Gqeberha Challenge 2026 by Free Radical Media

46 42

26 MY 02 You Belong Here 04 From First Step to Final Cheer

05 Route Map 06 Celebrate Our Heroes 10 Beyond the Finish Line

MY CHALLENGE

MY PACE

16 Know Before You Go 20 2025 The Year

54 Show Up Anyway 58 Grace Under Pressure

24 Drive Your

MY LIFESTYLE

26 The Heart Behind

62 Stop Tracking.

30 Faith & Fitness 34 The Quiet Work

66 The Invisible Load

We Thrived

Celebration Home the Heartbeat

of Hope

38 Doors That Open 42 A Thorn Among Roses 46 A Needle, a Thread,

Start Living

and a Factory Floor

50 Period. Full Stop. 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

Here Welcome to the 2026 SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha — and welcome to a day that belongs entirely to you.

t is my honour to welcome you on behalf of the incredible women of the SPAR family across the Eastern Cape. I am especially proud to celebrate the incredible women who are part of that family — our independent SPAR retailers, the women who lead and inspire within our distribution centres, and the many women who serve our customers and communities every single day. Whether you manage a store, work the floor, drive the deliveries, run the finances, or keep the wheels turning behind the scenes, you are the reason this community thrives. Through your leadership, commitment and care, you make a 2

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meaningful difference in the lives of others — and today, we celebrate you. That is the heart of #CelebrateHer. This year’s theme is not only a hashtag — it is a tribute to the women whose impact is felt long before it is ever recognised. The mother holding her family together. The teacher who changes the trajectory of a child’s life. The nurse giving care without counting the hours. The SPAR entrepreneur creating jobs in her community. The neighbour who quietly shows up. The friend who never stops cheering. These women are the heartbeat of the Eastern Cape, and today is their day. The women of this region have always carried a particular spirit — resilient, generous, and deeply community-minded. The SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha reflects that spirit perfectly. On this course, age, fitness level, and background disappear. What

remains is something far more powerful; thousands of women encouraging one another, step by step, towards that finish line at Pollok Beach. This year, your participation means even more. Every entry supports two extraordinary organisations — Northwood Children’s Hospice, which provides compassionate palliative and respite care to children living with life-limiting illnesses and their families, and Ripples for Change, which uplifts vulnerable children and families through education, well-being and community programmes. Every step you take on Challenge Day extends hope, comfort, and practical support to people who need it most. If this is your first time on the start line, know this; you have already achieved something simply by showing up. Do not worry about the person beside you. Whether you walk, jog or run, the finish line will be waiting — and so will an incredible community ready to celebrate you crossing it. Whatever brought you here today — a personal goal, a friend, a cause, a moment of courage — remember why you came. Believe in yourself, enjoy every kilometre, and do not forget to celebrate yourself too. You belong here. With warmth and pride,

Natasha Rogan Marketing Executive SPAR Eastern Cape

From First Step to

Final Cheer Your Challenge Day roadmap — pack, pace, and prize-giving Get ready to lace up and celebrate! Whether you’re taking on the 5km fun walk or powering through the 10km run, all the essential Challenge Day info you need is right here. We’ve got you covered — so you can focus on celebrating your strength, your sisters, and your stride. Let’s make this #CelebrateHer Challenge Day unforgettable!

Find Us Online WEBSITE:

sparwomenschallenge.co.za

FACEBOOK:

@SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha

INSTAGRAM:

@sparwomensgqeberha

TIK TOK:

@sparwomensgqeberha

Share your SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha experience on Challenge Day using our official hashtags!

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Honouring Every Woman’s Journey This year’s theme, #CelebrateHer, is a heartfelt tribute to every woman who has shown up — for herself, for her family, and for her community. #CelebrateHer is about more than crossing a finish line; it’s about honouring the courage it takes to start, the resilience it takes to continue, and the joy that comes from doing it together. Whether you’re chasing a personal best, walking in honour of someone you love, or simply celebrating the woman you’ve become, your presence on Challenge Day is a powerful declaration; she matters, her story matters, and she is worth celebrating. Together with SPAR, we’re creating a space where every woman is seen, heard, and celebrated — from the first step to the final cheer. Let’s make 2026 the year we celebrate — for ourselves, for each other, and for a stronger South Africa.

PUBLISHER

Free Radical Media info@freeradicalmedia.co.za

MANAGING EDITOR Kim Smit editor@freeradicalmedia.co.za DESIGN & LAYOUT Aneska Meintjes +27 66 489 2915 aneska@freeradicalmedia.co.za IMAGES Photography: Leon Hugo of Hugo Studios CONTRIBUTORS Honey Koba, Roseann Shadrach, Kim Smit, Mafa Bavuma, Noxolo Marks, Shirani Nhlangwini, Cecilia Fourie, Shanice Louw, Mpudi Maubane, Grace de Oliveira, Karen Barnard, Gabi Baatjes My Gqeberha Challenge magazine is published annually by Free Radical Media and is subject to copyright. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent from the publisher. All rights reserved. Unsolicited submissions (letters, manuscripts, photographs, artwork) may be considered for publication unless marked “not for publication” and may be edited. The magazine and publisher accept no responsibility for such material, nor for errors, omissions, or the accuracy of information provided. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Free Radical Media, SPAR, or their clients. Free Radical Media reserves the right to reject advertising at its discretion. Neither the publisher, SPAR, nor the authors accept liability for any loss, damage, or harm resulting from information, activities, or advice featured.

Win a Car

Stand a chance to win a Hyundai Exter when you enter this year’s SPAR Women’s Challenge. Remember to attend the prizegiving after the Challenge to be eligible to win this exciting prize!

Is the proud publisher of this publication

Route Map

September 2026 Pollok Beach, Grass area, Summerstrand 07h00 - 10km 08h00 - 5km

Race Village

Pollock Beach Grass Area behind Something Good

Start & Finish

In Marine Drive for both the 5km and 10km

Medal T-shirt My Gqeberha Challenge magazine

Terms & Conditions

Indemnity and Assumption of Risk By entering this event, you hereby warrant that: all information you supplied is true and correct, you are in good health, are physically fit and trained to participate in and understand the risks associated with the event. You agree to abide by all the rules and conditions of the event and accept that you enter and participate at your own risk. You accept and agree that The SPAR Group Limited, its directors, affiliates, stakeholders, sponsors, partners, employees, volunteers and/or any third party service providers assisting with the Event (Indemnified Parties) accept no responsibility or liability for any claim whatsoever arising from death, injury, loss and/or damage to person or property occasioned as a result of the your participation in the event. You unconditionally and irrevocably indemnify and hold the Indemnified Parties harmless to the fullest extent possible in law, against all and any losses, claims, proceedings, actions, damages, (direct, consequential or otherwise), liability, demands, expenses, legal costs (on an attorney and own client basis), medical costs or other costs however arising out of, based upon, or in connection with (directly or indirectly) with your participation in the event. POPIA Consent By entering this event, you consent to The SPAR Group Limited and its authorised event partners collecting, processing, and where necessary sharing your personal information for purposes of event registration, administration, timing, medical care, results, and related event promotion. Your personal information will be processed in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) and will not be used for any purpose beyond those stated above. Provision of your personal information is voluntary; however, failure to do so may result in your entry not being processed. You have the right to access, correct, or object to the processing of your personal information at any time by contacting us at sparwomenschallengejozi@spar.co.za. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator at complaints.IR@justice.gov.za. Withdrawal Policy Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES will entry fees be REFUNDED.

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Behind every SPAR shelf, every delivery on time, and every Challenge Day pack that reaches a runner’s hands, there is a team whose work rarely makes the headlines. This year, the Distribution Centre turns the spotlight on them. From Marketing to Transport, HR to Finance, Receiving to Returns, each department nominated a person who embodies what #CelebrateHer truly means — strength carried quietly, resilience built through unseen battles, and grace shown up for, again and again. These are not grand gestures; they are the everyday courage of people who show up, hold their teams together, and keep the wheels of SPAR turning. In their own words, and the words of those who nominated them, we celebrate the heartbeat of the DC — the people who make SPAR, SPAR. 6

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Our Heroes Nasiwe Mantyintyi East London Champion

We #CelebrateHer, because SHE has the courage to show up every day for everyone, even when she’s discouraged, despondent, and broken.

Juane Harmse

Build IT Champion We #CelebrateHer, because she creates, leads, and loves with courage, resilience, and wisdom that transforms lives.

Roxanne von Waltsleben

Marketing Champion #CelebrateHer for who she is. She is fearfully and wonderfully made – crafted with intention, clothed in strength, and filled with a beauty that shines far beyond appearances. Celebrate the unseen battles she fights, the burdens she carries with grace, and the resilience that rises within her every single day. It is through these challenges that her courage is refined, her spirit grows stronger, and her light becomes brighter. Today, we celebrate not only what she achieves, but who she is; extraordinary, resilient, and deeply worthy of honour and love.

Ronel de Tarnowsky Finance Champion

We #CelebrateHer, because we are strong and courageous! Victorious and brave!

Sharee Friskin

Retail Ops Champion We #CelebrateHer, because behind every meeting, every deadline, every school lunch, every bedtime story, and every challenge overcome is a woman who keeps showing up with courage and determination.

Amogelang Shupinyaneng

Returns & Inventory Champion #CelebrateHer, because she might break down a few times, but she will get up every time. 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

Honey Koba

Event Organiser I #CelebrateHer because I believe every woman deserves to be seen, heard and reminded of her worth. When we celebrate one another, we create space for more women to rise.

Shaun Sharpe

Assembly Dry Champion

Sandy Mshumpela IT Champion

#Celebrateher; she’s strong and true, for all the loving things she does. With hearts of courage, hands that care, they bring us hope and dreams to share. They lead with wisdom, stand with grace, and make the world a better place, through every challenge.

To every mother, daughter, sister, wife, and friend – thank you for the love you give, the strength you show, and the hope you inspire. Without women, life would lose its greatest gift. Today we honour you. #CelebrateHer

Asemahle Figlan

Pumla Williams

#CelebrateHer, because she is the goddess she thinks she is!

We #CelebrateHer, because she is strong, feisty, and bold.

Transport Champion

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Receiving Dry Champion

Khanya Mpunzi

Anitta Msenti

#CelebrateHer, because she carries strength no one can see, built from battles no one knew she fought, but still she rises again and again.

#CelebrateHer, because she is the vital heartbeat of her family, balancing boundless strength with deep nurturing. Her emotional intelligence, resilience, and unconditional love set the foundation for her home. She is the rock that holds loved ones steady through challenges, while also leading with grace, wisdom, and unmatched compassion.

Perishable Receiving Champion

HR Champion

Oyisa Dila

Outbound Department Champion Her strength is her virtue. Her kindness is her pride. Her compassion is her confidence.

Rushka

HR Exec Champion #CelebrateHer because her love is boundless and limitless, yet so powerful. 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

Beyond the There is a moment Mpudi Maubane describes that anyone who has stood at a SPAR Women’s Challenge start line will instantly recognise. Thousands of women, packed shoulder to shoulder, different ages, different backgrounds, different stories — and yet connected by something that does not need to be explained. “It’s overwhelming in the most beautiful way,” she says. “There’s an energy that you can feel before a single step is taken. It’s hope, it’s courage, it’s solidarity. And you realise this is so much bigger than a race.”

s National PR, Communications and Sponsorships Manager at SPAR South Africa, Mpudi is one of the key architects behind the event that has shaped that start-line feeling for more than three decades. But spend any time in conversation with her and it becomes clear that the Challenge, for all its scale and spectacle, is simply one expression of something far deeper — a genuine, rooted conviction that showing up for women is not a seasonal act. It is a way of doing business. 10

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The Stories Behind the Brand

Mpudi came to SPAR drawn by something that most corporate communications professionals can only aspire to; authenticity. “This is a business that lives where people live — in our neighbourhoods, daily routines, and in moments that really matter,” she explains. “The stories are real. We are not just telling them; we are part of them. Every initiative, every campaign, every retailer interaction has a human face behind it. That responsibility — to tell those stories with honesty and care, is what drives me every day.” It is a philosophy that has shaped her approach to some of the most complex and sensitive issues she works on. When it comes to genderbased violence (GBV) and period poverty, Mpudi speaks not as a marketer, but as a South African woman who has watched these crises play out quietly in communities around her. “There wasn’t one defining moment,” she says of when GBV and period poverty became personal for her. “It was many small, quiet ones. Conversations that stopped halfway. Girls missing school without explanation. Women carrying more than they should, in silence. In South Africa, these issues are not distant — they are woven into our communities. You don’t have to look far to see their impact. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.”

SPAR Cares: Consistency as a Form of Commitment

What sets SPAR apart, Mpudi argues, is precisely what is the most difficult to manufacture; consistency. The SPAR Women’s Challenge, which began with a single race in Durban in 1990, has grown into the world’s biggest women’s road race — running across Cape Town, Durban, Tshwane, Gqeberha, Mbombela, and Johannesburg, and drawing tens of thousands of women to its start lines each year. The 2025 series, themed #Twenty20Thrive, marked the event’s 35th anniversary with extraordinary momentum — every regional leg selling out, and the Tshwane edition breaking records. In 2026, under the banner of #CelebrateHer, that momentum has only deepened. But Mpudi is quick to direct attention beyond the numbers. “The SPAR Women’s Challenge and the SPAR Grand Prix series are powerful symbols of female empowerment, health promotion, and the fight against inequalities,” she says. “By participating, women are not just investing in their well-being — they are also contributing to a brighter future for all women in South Africa.” The SPAR Grand Prix series, now celebrating its 18th year in 2026 with a record prize purse of R1 967 500, is a case in point. Since 2019, the

series has welcomed international athletes from across Africa, raising the standard of women’s road running on the continent. For Mpudi, the significance of that investment reaches far beyond elite sport. “Prize money matters. Recognition matters. Elite women competing on a wellresourced, well-publicised stage matters — not only for the champions, but for every young girl watching from the roadside.” And then there is the End Period Poverty campaign — perhaps the most tangible thread in SPAR Cares’ fabric. At each leg of the Women’s Challenge, participants are invited to donate sanitary pads for girls whose education is disrupted every month simply because they cannot afford menstrual hygiene products. At the Tshwane leg alone, the drive ensured that 4 000 girls could remain in school for another month. “This is not just about a product,” says Mpudi firmly. “It’s about restoring confidence, protecting the opportunities that lie ahead, and reminding young girls that they belong in every space they step into.”

The ‘Her’ Worth Celebrating

Under the 2026 theme of #CelebrateHer, Mpudi’s thinking turns inward — to the women who rarely make the headlines and yet hold entire communities together. “To me, #CelebrateHer is about recognising the 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

MY strength that often goes unseen,” she says. “It’s about the everyday woman — the one who keeps going, who holds things together, who shows up even when it’s hard. That is the ‘her’ I want to celebrate. Not just in big moments, but in the quiet ones too.” She is candid about the tendency women have to sidestep their own recognition. “We are generally taught to move on to the next responsibility, to focus on others, to downplay our own achievements. But celebration is not about ego — it’s about acknowledgement. It’s about recognising your own strength and giving yourself permission to pause and say: I did that. I passed through that. I won.” For the woman reading this who does not feel there is anything in her life to celebrate right now, Mpudi has a message delivered with characteristic gentleness: “You’re still here. You’re still trying. You’re still showing up. That may not feel like much, but it is everything. Strength doesn’t always look like success — sometimes it looks like survival. And that is worth celebrating.”

Showing Up on the Road

Mpudi participates in the Challenge herself — and she speaks about crossing the finish line not as an executive ticking a box, but as a woman who has felt what that moment means from the inside. “Every time I cross that finish line, I’m reminded that it’s not about how fast you go — it’s about the decision 12

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to show up and be part of the community,” she says. “For me, it represents resilience. It’s a quiet moment of reflection; that no matter how difficult the journey is, you kept moving. And that matters.” It is in those quieter moments — not the podium photographs or the prizegiving speeches — that Mpudi finds the story she most wants to tell. “The moments in between. That time when you start slowing down to walk with someone, encouraging a stranger, finishing together instead of alone. Those moments capture the spirit of the Challenge. It’s not about competition — it’s about connection and creating lasting memories.”

What the Future Looks Like

When asked how she would measure whether the SPAR Women’s Challenge is truly changing lives — beyond participant numbers — Mpudi does not hesitate. “Are conversations becoming more open? Are young girls staying in school? Are women feeling supported? Are we seeing improved numbers of school attendance and active participation in sport by young girls? Those are the indicators of real change — the ones you don’t always see in numbers.” Looking further ahead, her vision for SPAR’s future is built on the same foundation she describes in the present. “Showing up in 10 years’ time means remaining steadfast in the values and commitments that have defined us — ensuring that true impact is reflected not only during

times of public attention, but especially in moments when our support is needed the most.”

And as for how Mpudi celebrates herself?

“I’m still learning,” she admits with a quiet smile in her words. “But I’ve come to understand that celebration doesn’t have to be loud or even costly. Sometimes it’s simply about pausing, taking a deep breath, and acknowledging how far you’ve come. Giving yourself that moment before you move forward again and saying: I am enough.” In a country where so many women are still fighting for exactly that kind of recognition, it is a sentence worth sitting with.

MY CHALLENGE

Know Before You Go You have your Challenge number and excitement is building! If you are determined to celebrate on Challenge Day and ensure a safe and enjoyable day on Saturday, 26 September 2026, read below! 16

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MY CHALLENGE

01.

Humans Only, Please

We love animals, but with approximately 6 000 participants and their families, the environment can be overwhelming for them. Please leave your furry friends at home.

02.

Family Fun for All

Children and babies can join the fun! For their safety, please stay behind the front runners. We recommend writing your name and cell phone number on their arm in case they are separated from you or run ahead in the excitement. If your little ones would like their own goodie bag, please ensure they have a paid entry.

03.

Men Participating in the Challenge

04.

Easy Entry

05.

Wear Your Support

While men are welcome to join the 5km Challenge, please note that they are not eligible for any prizes on the day. They will, however, receive a goodie bag.

Once you have entered online at sparwomenschallenge.co.za/gqeberha, you will be able to collect your Challenge pack from the Pollok Beach Grass Area during the week leading up to the Challenge.

While wearing your official Challenge T-shirt is not mandatory, we would appreciate it as a symbol of solidarity. No other specific clothing is required unless you are competing for a category prize. 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

MY CHALLENGE

06.

Collecting Your Challenge Pack

You can pick up your race number, T-shirt, and goodie bag during Challenge week — between 09h00 and 18h00 from 23 to 25 September — or on Challenge morning from 05h30. We’ll also send emails and SMS notifications with all the details closer to collection time.

07.

Rise and Shine – It’s Challenge Time

Yes, the time is right — the 10km starts at 07h00 and the 5km at 08h00, while differently abled participants start at 09h00. We know mornings can be busy for many women, which is why the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha is designed to get you moving early, leaving the rest of your day free to celebrate your achievement. With plenty of water stations along the way, you’ll stay hydrated and energised, especially if the weather warms up. Let’s make the most of a beautiful morning at the beach!

08.

Medical Support On-Site

09.

Results Online

A marked medical tent staffed by qualified medical personnel will be on the field. Emergency teams will also be stationed at water points and the finish line, with ambulances on standby for any medical situations. The route is 100% wheelchair and pram friendly.

The 10km race results will be available on the day of the race and will be posted on www.raceresults.co.za. Please note that the 5km event is not timed, so results will not be published.

Get ready to join thousands of women on 26 September 2026, have an amazing time, and celebrate with us on Challenge Day! 18

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MY CHALLENGE

The Year We The 2025 SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha was nothing short of electric. Under the rallying cry of #Twenty20Thrive, thousands of women descended on Pollok Beach with one shared purpose — to rise, to celebrate, and to remind the world what women look like when they truly thrive. From the energy at the starting line to the tears, laughter, and triumphant finishes that followed, every moment captured here tells the same story: This is what strength looks like, this is what sisterhood feels like, and this is what it means to stop merely surviving and start thriving — together.

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MY CHALLENGE

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MY CHALLENGE

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MY CHALLENGE

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MY CHALLENGE

Drive Your

HOME Cross the finish line, stay for the draw — and you could drive home a winner

his year, #CelebrateHer isn’t only a theme — it could be your key to a brand-new set of wheels! That’s right, SPAR and Hyundai are giving one lucky Challenge participant the chance to win a Hyundai Exter at Pollok Beach, Summerstrand, on 26 September 2026! All you have to do is show up, celebrate, and drop your name into the entry boxes for the draw.

Nitty Gritty Details: • • • • •

Enter the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha (5km or 10km). On Challenge Day, tear off the strip from your official Challenge number. Drop it into the entry box at the stage area. Be present at the stage for the lucky draw — if your name is called and you’re not there, we’ll draw another winner.

Who Qualifies? • •

You must be female and 18+. You need a valid driver’s licence.

No Licence? No Problem!

If you win but don’t yet have your licence, you’ll have six months to get it — and SPAR will help you with our Driver’s Licence Education Package, which includes: • Learner’s licence test booking and fee. • Professional driving lessons. • First attempt at your driver’s licence test.

Important Conditions • • •

If you fail your learner’s, you’ll need to cover reapplication and extra lessons (the package will be cancelled). If you pass the learner’s but fail your driver’s test, your second attempt is on you. The prize is non-transferable and cannot be exchanged for cash.

Be at the Prize Draw

Date: 26 September 2026 Venue: Pollok Beach, Grass Area, Summerstrand Limited to 6 000 entries only

*Colour of car may vary

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IMAGINE IT; the sun on your face, the ocean breeze, the roar of the crowd — and then your name is called. The keys to your brand-new Hyundai Exter could be in your hand. So lace up, show up, and celebrate your way to the driver’s seat. This isn’t just any prize — it’s the ride of a lifetime!

MY CHALLENGE

The Heart Behind the More than 20 years ago, a young woman accepted a job. She had no way of knowing she was accepting a calling.

efore the sun was fully up, before the start gun had been loaded, and long before thousands of women had laced up their shoes, Roseann Shadrach was already there — watching the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha come to life in the quiet before sunrise. In that moment, she knew. This was never going to be just a job. “I realised that this was never just about a race,” she says. “It was about creating a moment where thousands of women would feel seen, celebrated, and united. In that instant, something shifted in me.” Over the next two decades, Roseann did not simply organise the 26

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SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha. She became, as she puts it, its custodian — the person whose steady hands held the heart of the event year after year, making sure that what women experienced on Challenge Day felt less like an athletics event and more like coming home. Now, as she prepares to close this chapter at monthend, Gqeberha has the chance to say what it should have been saying for years; thank you.

THE BEAUTY THAT EARNED ITS NAME

Ask Roseann why she gave herself so completely to this event and she answers without hesitation. “Because it’s called the most beautiful road race for a reason,” she says. “Where else do thousands of women gather, not to compete against one another, but to celebrate one another?” The SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha is not a race that happens to have

warmth. It is warmth that happens to have a route. The atmosphere, the music, the generations of women walking side by side — Roseann understood from the outset that her job was not to manage logistics. It was to protect a feeling. “I wasn’t protecting an event,” she says quietly. “I was protecting a feeling of belonging. A feeling of being celebrated. A feeling that, for one day, every woman mattered.” What that protection cost is something most participants never saw. There were months of planning, countless early mornings, late nights when her sons Zach and Connor were already asleep before she got home. There were sore feet, skipped meals, and headache tablets shared among a team running on belief. “It’s unglamorous,” she admits. “But when people tell me, ‘It was such a beautiful day’, I smile — because that’s exactly the point.”

MY CHALLENGE

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MY CHALLENGE

WHEN FAITH MEETS THE FORECAST

Not every challenge could be solved with planning. One of Roseann’s most tested — and most revealing — moments was the weather. “There were a few Challenges where it just rained...and rained...and rained,” she recalls. “As an event organiser, you can plan for almost everything, but you can’t control the weather.” So she prayed. And she chose to see the rain not as a problem, but as showers of blessing. More than once, the clouds cleared minutes before the start gun was fired. “Those moments reminded me that while planning and preparation are essential, some things are simply bigger than us,” she says. “They taught me faith, perspective, and the importance of never losing hope — even when the skies seem darkest.”

THE MOMENT SHE’LL NEVER FORGET

Ask Roseann to name her proudest Challenge and she 28

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laughs — the kind of laugh that comes with knowing the question is impossible to answer. “Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m the biggest crybaby around,” she says. “I feel everything deeply — probably deeper than most.” What she can name is the moment. Every year, at the start line, thousands of women raise their hands and form a heart — a tradition she began many years ago. And every year, standing before that sea of faces as voices rose together through Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, Roseann cried. “Every single year, I ugly cry,” she says, smiling. “In that moment, I’m reminded

that every early morning, every late night, every sacrifice was worth it.” It was not the only moment that stopped her. Last year, she walked alongside participants from the Association for the Physically Disabled (APD) as they made their way through the Challenge. By the time the APD group reached the Race Village, thousands of women who had already completed their own routes were still there — gathered along the finish, cheering, and clapping for every single one of them. “There wasn’t a dry eye in sight,” Roseann says. “If that isn’t the true spirit of Ubuntu, I don’t know what is.”

MY CHALLENGE

PARTNERSHIP OVER CHARITY

Roseann’s vision for the SPAR Women’s Challenge was always shaped by a deeper question: What does meaningful community investment actually look like? Her answer came through SPAR’s partnership with APD — not as a donation recipient, but as the manufacturer of the event’s T-shirts. “Too often, organisations like APD are seen simply as NPOs waiting for a handout,” she says. “But that’s not who they are. They invested in upskilling their learners, purchased their own property, and built a fully operational CMT factory that creates sustainable employment.” SPAR chose to appoint APD as a supplier — a decision that speaks directly to what Roseann believes the Challenge stands for. “It’s about empowering people to build sustainable futures, not creating dependency,” she says.

THE WOMAN BEHIND THE WOMAN

For all the thousands of women she has celebrated, Roseann’s answer to who deserves more recognition is immediate and deeply personal; her mother. “While I was working the late nights and pouring everything into the SPAR Women’s Challenge, she was pouring everything into my family,” she says. “She stepped in to care for my boys — not just as their grandmother, but as my mom. She filled the gaps when I couldn’t be there.”

It is a tribute that says as much about Roseann as it does about her mother. She spent 20 years creating a space where women felt seen. Her mother spent a lifetime creating it for her. “Before I spent 20 years celebrating thousands of women,” she says softly, “she spent a lifetime celebrating me.”

THE NEXT CHAPTER

Roseann closes this chapter with clear eyes and a full heart — and one final ask of the women of Gqeberha, for whoever steps into the role next: “Welcome her. Protect her. Celebrate her. Embrace her with the same kindness, grace, and love that you so generously showed me. Because that’s what women do. We don’t just leave legacies...we pass them on.” She does not know exactly what the next season holds, but she knows precisely who she wants to be. “I want to keep building, creating, serving, and telling stories that bring hope,” she says. “I want to keep championing people — especially women — and creating opportunities for women and children to flourish.” And as for the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha — the event she built, shaped, and fiercely protected for 20 years? “I know with all my heart that it will continue changing lives for decades to come,” she says. “And there will be one final ugly cry. Because that’s just who I am.” 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

MY CHALLENGE

Noxolo Marks has been running towards her dreams for 19 years. She hasn’t stopped yet.

Faith and Fitness W

hen Noxolo Marks was a young girl in Gqeberha, she would sit glued to the television on Sunday mornings, watching women run on SABC 2 Sport. She pictured herself among them — strong, purposeful, moving. She told no one. The

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dream lived quietly inside her for years, waiting. Nineteen years on, CoachNox — personal trainer, fitness instructor, bootcamp host, and Ignite Fitness Global ambassador — is one of Gqeberha’s most recognisable voices in

women’s health and fitness. But the path from that small girl watching television to the coach who now inspires thousands was not a straight road. It was paved with loss, faith, and a decision made in 2007 that changed everything.

A Dream She Carried Alone

Noxolo was raised in Gqeberha by her aunt, alongside her sisters and

MY CHALLENGE cousins, after her mother abandoned them when she was young. Her father — her ‘everything’, her motivator — was in her life despite his struggles with alcohol. She became his keeper; feeding him, caring for him, and loving him fiercely. As a teenager she played hockey, then stopped when high school demanded her focus. Her weight increased after matric. She looked in the mirror and did not recognise who she saw. “I never liked myself at all,” she says, “because there was this active fit person living inside me.” In 2007, she made a decision. She started aerobics. Then she entered her first race — Umhlobo Wenene — and fell in love with running. By 2010, she had become a competitive IFBB bodybuilder, competing until 2012. With every training session, her confidence grew. A new dream was forming; she would become a coach. She would help others feel what she was beginning to feel. “I wanted to be something in life,” she says simply.

me with God.” It was running that had introduced her to that faith. During a training run in Motherwell, she was robbed at knifepoint and dragged towards the bushes by an attacker. Unable to scream, she made a silent bargain: If God was real, He would save her. Within moments, the sound of a shepherd’s voice — and her group calling

professional. In 2014, she launched Metro Gym. By 2022, she had joined Ignite Fitness Global — now Edge Gym. It was only in 2025 that she made the deliberate shift from group instructor to one-on-one personal trainer, having recognised that something the class setting could not provide. “I noticed most women lost confidence,” she says. “They are obese, and some are hiding the fact that they want to Training kept me close be in good shape. Most to my dad even when he women are suffering was gone. Running is where because of their weight. And I, CoachNox — I I developed my strongest know exactly how it feels to live in a body relationship with God. you don’t like. I’ve been there. I was crying day and night.” her name — scattered her The move to personal attacker. She walked away training was not a business shaken, but changed. calculation. It was empathy, “That was the day I applied. started believing in God,” she says. CoachNox — Faith and Fitness — was born in Ask Noxolo what sport that moment, even if the gives women, and she name would come later. doesn’t hesitate. “It’s like therapy,” she says. “It brings peace, joy, and happiness. The name itself carries her You feel like a brand new father’s legacy: Nox comes person. And when it hits you, from Noxolo, and Noxolo you just don’t want to stop.” was her father’s name too. On whether South African CoachNox means Faith and women are celebrated In 2016, Noxolo’s father Fitness, because, as she enough in fitness and sport, passed away. She had spent explains it, without faith there she is equally direct: No. years running at dawn on would be no fitness, and Which is why she posts the National Road, waking without fitness, no faith. The — constantly, joyfully, before the world to chase two are inseparable in her purposefully — across social the version of herself she world. media. She wants women had promised him she would She began coaching to see fitness not as a become. When he died, she formally at Lillian Ngoyi, punishment or an aspiration nearly lost herself with him. “I mentored by Ta Mthura, reserved for others, but as lost a part of me,” she says whom she credits with something beautiful that quietly. “But my father left grooming her as a belongs to them.

What Sport Gives Women

Building CoachNox

The Why That Would Not Break

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CoachNox means Faith and Fitness — because without faith there wouldn’t be fitness, and without fitness there wouldn’t be faith. “I want every woman to do movement. It doesn’t have to be intense. Even if it’s a walk or steps — as long as it’s movement.” She pauses. “There is nothing better than a woman who is taking care of herself.” To the woman who has told herself that the fitness world is not for her — that weights will make her bulky, that she is too far gone, too tired, too busy — Noxolo has a characteristic response. “I don’t just tell them this world is for her,” she says. “I show them.”

Challenge Day: Women Celebrating Women

Noxolo has run in the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha before — in the early years of her fitness journey, competing under Nedbank and then Mr Price, now Ikamva. What she remembers most is not the distance or the time. It is the feeling. “The race is also about having fun,” she says. “Just women celebrating themselves.” This year’s theme — #CelebrateHer — resonates with her personally and professionally. When 32

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asked whom she celebrates, she does not name anyone else. She names herself. “I celebrate me. Because with all the hardship and difficulties of life, I never gave up. I kept going, knowing that one day the world would know my name.” It is not arrogance. It is survival, transformed into purpose. For a woman who spent years invisible — overlooked by a world that had not yet caught up to what she was building — claiming her own celebration is an act of quiet revolution.

The Daily Practice

Noxolo trains four to five times a week, always in the mornings, always before work — fitness remains a

part-time pursuit alongside her professional life, though the line between the two grows thinner every year. She is honest about the difficult days. “Some days I put pressure on myself, and some days I go slow, especially when I’m tired.” What keeps her returning is not motivation — she has outgrown that. “Motivation fades. I chose discipline.” When even discipline falters, she scrolls through her Instagram feed, watching the gym community she has built, and finds her way back. The advice she gives her clients is the same advice she has lived: Remember why you started. Rest when you need to. Come back

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Women, you better pack your bag and see how many women are celebrating themselves — and I am sure that you want to be one of them.

dark. Nineteen years of carrying a dream she once told no one about. The world is starting to know her name.

stronger. “You cannot push someone who doesn’t want to be pushed,” she says. “And remember — we don’t finish fitness. We keep going.”

Legacy: A Gym, a Community, a World

The next chapter is still forming. Noxolo speaks of it with the quiet certainty of someone who has learned, through hard experience, that her vision has a habit of becoming real. “In spirit, I know what it is,” she says. “And I know it’s going to turn physical.” She wants her own gym. She wants to help women across the world. She wants what she has always wanted — to be something in life — and she is close enough to see it. As CoachNox, she wants to be remembered as a woman with a big heart; a coach who trains not only bodies, but spirits. As Noxolo — the girl from Gqeberha, her father’s keeper, the one who kept going — she wants to be remembered as humble. Soft. Beautiful. And completely, unapologetically strong. “Every woman deserves to feel beautiful,” she says. Nineteen years of mornings before sunrise. Nineteen years of roads run in the

QUICK FACTS COACHNOX

Name: Noxolo Marks (CoachNox) Based: Gqeberha, Eastern Cape Roles: Personal trainer, fitness instructor, bootcamp host Industry experience: 19 years Former: IFBB competitive bodybuilder (2010–2012) CoachNox means: Faith and Fitness

Follow @Noxolo Marks @coachnox.iloveit

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The Quiet Work of

HOW THE SPAR WOMEN’S CHALLENGE GQEBERHA CARRIES ITS IMPACT WELL PAST POLLOK BEACH Every September, Pollok Beach fills with colour, laughter, and the steady thud of thousands of trainers hitting the sand, but for two Eastern Cape organisations, the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha means something that outlasts Challenge Day by months, even years. Northwood Children’s Hospice and Ripples for Change are this year’s nominated beneficiaries, and together they capture exactly what #CelebrateHer is built on; women whose quiet, sustained work holds families and communities together long after the finish line has been packed away.

A Place to Belong Northwood Children’s Hospice

Northwood Children’s Hospice was founded in 2009, growing out of the community work of St Francis Hospice once it became clear that children 34

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with life-limiting and lifethreatening conditions needed dedicated care of their own. Under founder and director Maureen Lamb, the organisation’s programmes officially began in February 2010 on Northwood Road in Mount Croix — the

address that gave the hospice its name, and its now-familiar tree logo, “much like the magnificent tree that stands above our home, providing shelter, resilience, and a reminder that, with the right care and support, every child and family has the opportunity to flourish,” Lamb says. Today Northwood is a registered non-profit organisation, public benefit organisation and partial care facility, holding a B-BBEE Level 1 rating — the kind of institutional weight that sits quietly behind a name most Gqeberha families come to know only when they need it most. That belief plays out across four connected programmes. “Our Hospice Care programme provides clinical, therapeutic, and emotional support to children with serious illnesses while walking alongside their families through every stage of their journey,” Lamb explains, and in practice that means pain and symptom management, home-based care, nutritional support, and bereavement counselling delivered by

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Northwood Children’s Hospice an interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals, caregivers, and therapists. Alongside it sits a Special Needs Edu-Care Centre supporting roughly 30 children aged three to seven each year; an educational support programme running from early childhood right through to tertiary level, and a skills development programme offering accredited training — among them ancillary nursing, home-based care, social auxiliary work, and grief care and bereavement — that trains disadvantaged young people for real employment in the healthcare and caregiving sectors. The guiding philosophy, Lamb says, is that “healthcare and education go hand in hand — one restores health, the

other restores hope.” Northwood’s reach extends well beyond its own gates. It supports three creches in disadvantaged communities, reaching around 150 children a year, and runs a Winter Warmer Campaign that delivers over 600 parcels of warm clothing and blankets to families each year, alongside a new bed, mattress and bedding for every referred child. At Christmas, its Smiley Box initiative brings food, clothing, and small treats to more than 500 vulnerable children aged three to fifteen — a R350 donation funds one full box. None of it depends on knowing a child’s name; it depends on knowing there are hundreds of them. Over the past 16 years,

Northwood has directly improved or saved the lives of more than 1 800 vulnerable children and positively impacted over 7 200 disadvantaged families. More than 1 200 children have been supported through education from early childhood to tertiary level, and over 800 young people have gained vocational skills through its training programmes; 180 children are currently within its care. Because every referred child’s identity is protected, Northwood does not share names or photographs of the families it supports for external publication — its impact is told instead through the scale of those numbers, repeated quietly, year after year. 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

MY CHALLENGE “We hope our legacy will be measured not by the buildings we create, but by the lives we change,” Lamb says of Northwood’s longheld ambition; a purposebuilt, 30-bed, three-wing Paediatric Palliative Care Hospice, designed by architect Inger Thede, which will house in-patient wards and private rooms, family accommodation, an onsite pharmacy, therapy and training facilities, a memorial garden, and a chapel for reflection. Architectural plans have now been submitted and the site is under rezoning. On what #CelebrateHer means to her personally, Lamb turns the spotlight away from her own leadership and onto the women around her: “Women are the heartbeat of Northwood … their quiet acts of love have touched thousands of lives.”

At a Glance

Northwood Children’s Hospice Founded: 2009, with programmes launching in February 2010 Founder & Director: Maureen Lamb Impact to date: 1 800+ children and 7 200+ families supported over 16 years Vision: A purpose-built, 30-bed Paediatric Palliative Care Hospice Funding contact: Gemma Ebersohn, Funding Portfolio Manager 36

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Ripples for Change

Small Actions, Big Waves - Ripples for Change Ripples for Change was founded in 2017 to address a gap its team saw clearly; rural Eastern Cape communities were receiving fragmented, short-term assistance, but lacked the long-term partnerships needed to build local leadership and lasting opportunity. From its early work supporting a handful of community early childhood development (ECD) centres, the organisation now runs provincial ECD and agricultural programmes alongside national youth development and food security initiatives, plus newer STEM, mental health, and entrepreneurship work. It is also, by its own numbers, a women-led organisation through and through, says Galit Cohen: “Women are 90% of our beneficiaries, 95% of our staff and 100% of our senior staff.” That principle shows most clearly in its agricultural empowerment work, built primarily around women in

MY CHALLENGE beekeeping, food production, and livelihood diversification. Many participants join the programme unemployed and dependent on social grants; today, several are harvesting honey, earning an income, and mentoring others into the same path. “One of our beekeeping mentors came into the programme with no prior experience in beekeeping or team management, but a wonderful approach to learn and succeed,” Cohen shares. “Today, she is one of the best mentors we have.” Ripples for Change is headquartered in East London, and Cohen is candid about what that means for Gqeberha; its reach here is still growing rather than established. “Although headquartered in East London, our work increasingly serves the wider Eastern Cape through partnerships, provincial and national initiatives, and knowledgesharing that extend towards Gqeberha,” she explains, with discussions underway to expand ECD, youth, STEM and entrepreneurship initiatives into the city as funding allows. The partnership with

the Challenge itself began at the East London 2025 Local Hero Awards, where the organisation’s work first caught the attention of SPAR’s Honey Koba. Asked what she would say to a woman in one of the communities Ripples for Change serves who doesn’t yet see a path forward, Cohen leans on the organisation’s own name: “Small actions create big waves. One decision, one opportunity, or one act of courage can create a ripple that transforms not only your own future, but also the lives of your children, your family, and your entire community … never underestimate the power of one woman to create waves of change that will be felt for generations to come.”

At a Glance

Ripples for Change Founded: 2017 Contact: Galit Cohen Base: East London / Border Kei, expanding towards the wider Eastern Cape, including Gqeberha Team: 90% of beneficiaries and 95% of staff are women; senior management is 100% women Focus: Early childhood development, agricultural empowerment (including beekeeping), youth development, STEM

A Legacy Bigger Than the Finish Line Neither organisation asked to be the story SPAR is telling this year, but both model something worth carrying past Challenge Day. For Northwood, it looks like a tree logo, a Smiley Box at Christmas, and 16 years of holding families together one referral at a time, without ever needing to name a single child to prove it matters. For Ripples for Change, it looks like a beekeeping mentor teaching another woman to keep her own hives, one small ripple at a time. #CelebrateHer, this year, means both — and for the thousands of women crossing the finish line at Pollok Beach, that’s worth carrying with them long after Challenge Day ends. 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

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Doors That SHANICE LOUW ON BELONGING, THE FACTORY FLOOR, AND WHY 6 000 CHALLENGE GOODIE BAGS CARRY MORE MEANING THAN MOST PEOPLE WILL EVER KNOW Shanice Ilse Louw grew up in the Northern Areas of Gqeberha. She is, by her own description, a product of her community, her faith, and a health journey that tested her in ways she couldn’t have prepared for. Though she would probably resist the word, she is also one of the most quietly determined people you are likely to read about this year. 38

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oday, Shanice is the Skills Training and Health and Safety Manager at the Association for the Physically Disabled (APD) Nelson Mandela Bay — an organisation that has been serving people with disabilities in the Eastern Cape since 1940. She spends her days alongside students who arrive at APD having been told by the world that they are limited. She watches them leave, knowing they are not. This year, APD will also be packing approximately 6 000 goodie bags for participants in the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha. On the surface, it’s a logistical task. Shanice will tell you it’s something else entirely.

The Door That Opened

Shanice didn’t choose the disability sector. She’ll be the first to say it. “Life led me here,” she says, “profoundly, painfully, and ultimately purposefully”. She knows what it is to knock on doors and hear nothing. To present yourself — your qualifications, your effort, your potential — and still be turned away. To be told, more than once, that there was simply “no place for disabled people”. Not in theory. In actual job interviews. When APD opened its doors, it was the exception to a long string of closed ones. “They didn’t see a liability or a question mark,” she says. “They saw a person with

Thousands of women across Gqeberha will hold something in their hands that was prepared with care, with pride, and with purpose by persons with disabilities. That kind of visibility changes perceptions. And it changes how our people see themselves. ability, with lived experience, with something real to offer.” That kind of belief, she adds, changes everything. It changed her.

What Inclusion Actually Looks Like

APD Nelson Mandela Bay holds the distinction of being one of the only NPOs in South Africa with a fully operational manufacturing factory — one where they aim to have 50% of employees as persons with disabilities. The factory produces PPE workwear, school uniforms for over 30 schools, corporate gifts, and branded garments, while offering services such as embroidery, sublimation, and DTF printing. “Walk onto the factory floor on a Tuesday morning,” Shanice says, “and you’d see people working.” She pauses. “That might sound simple, but that is exactly the point. Wheelchairs, walkers, crutches — getting work done alongside everyone else. Not as a charity exercise. Because they are skilled,

capable employees doing meaningful work.” Inclusion at APD is not a poster on the wall. It is the culture on the floor. For many students, it is the first time anyone has said that to them. Shanice tracks not only skill acquisition but confidence and what she calls “the living proof that transformation is happening”. Two of her current trainers were once her students.

What Gets Packed into a Goodie Bag

This September, APD will pack 6 000 goodie bags for the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha — receiving and organising all event items, setting up packing stations, and coordinating a team across multiple shifts. APD were part of the 2025 Challenge too. But Shanice wants to say something about what that packing actually represents. APD’s team will also be at Pollok Beach on Challenge Day itself. Staff, clients, and beneficiaries will take part — some running, some walking, some making their way with assistive devices. “For us, it won’t be about how fast you cross the finish line,” Shanice says. “It will be about being there, together, and showing that this event truly is for every woman — disability or no disability.”

#CelebrateHer

The theme of this year’s SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha, #CelebrateHer, 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

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is not an abstract campaign concept. For Shanice, it is personal. “It means celebrating every woman who has had to fight harder than she should have to, to be seen, to be heard, to be valued. It means recognising the women who show up every day — not because the road is easy, but because giving up was never an option.” When asked which woman she would celebrate, she doesn’t hesitate. Her mother. During the most difficult days of her own recovery — from paralysis back to walking — when she couldn’t wash herself or dress herself, her mother was there. “She never flinched. She never wavered.” “With her, I could be sad when I was sad, and weak when I was weak, and instead of looking away, she would gather me up and remind me to keep going.” Her mother, Shanice believes, carried her own doubts quietly and pushed forward for both of them. “She is, without question, the strongest woman I have ever known.”

What Comes Next

Shanice’s vision for APD is specific and, in the best way, impatient. She wants the organisation to go into schools — to reach young people with disabilities before the world convinces them of their limitations, and to equip teachers with practical tools to uplift their learners. “If we can pour into the teachers, we multiply our reach far beyond what any one programme could do on its own.” 40

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About

APD Nelson Mandela Bay

She also wants growth in the factory. More capacity, more pathways, more doors open. “Not just bigger for the sake of being bigger. Bigger so that more young people hear, early enough to believe it: you are enough, and you belong here.” Shanice Louw was told she couldn’t. She was overlooked, dismissed, and turned away from doors that should have been open. Then one door wasn’t. And she walked through it, and kept walking, until she became the person standing on the other side, holding it open for everyone behind her. That is what #CelebrateHer looks like. Not a headline, not a hashtag. A woman who turned her most difficult seasons into someone else’s breakthrough, and who will be on the start line at Pollok Beach in September to prove it.

Founded: 1940 Location: 55 Paterson Road, North End, Gqeberha Mission: To empower persons with disabilities through inclusive education, skills development, employment, and social support services. The Factory: One of South Africa’s fully functional manufacturing factories within an NPO. A total of 50 permanent employees, with a target of 50% persons with disabilities. Services: Sewing learnerships, social work support, skills development, PPE workwear, school uniforms, corporate gifting, and full branding services. SPAR Women’s Challenge 2026: APD will pack approximately 6 000 participant goodie bags and participate in the 5km/10km Challenge on 26 September 2026. Contact: shanice.louw@apdnmb. org.za | 041 484 5426 | apdnmb.org.za

A Thorn MY CHALLENGE

There is a particular kind of nerve required to step onto a stage surrounded by thousands of women, dressed in a tutu skirt, with stage make-up applied for the first time in your life, and call it one of the best decisions you have ever made. For Mafa Bavuma, MC and Ambassador of the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha, that decision arrived in 2023 — and he has not looked back since.

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“B

eing a thorn among roses felt so special,” he recalls of that first year. “The make-up, the tutu skirts — it was fun and completely out of my comfort zone.” The cold winter morning could have dampened the mood. Instead, the moment he stepped on stage, something shifted. “The atmosphere turned electric, and I forgot it was winter.”

FROM A GIG TO A COMMITMENT

What began as a booking has grown into something far more personal. Over the years on stage and behind the scenes, Mafa has built genuine chemistry with his co-MCs and fellow Ambassadors, and learned the particular skill of holding space for a deeply diverse crowd of participants — first-timers and Challenge veterans, teenagers and grandmothers, all moving towards the same finish line. “Over the years, my understanding of the Challenge’s purpose has deepened,” he says. “It’s grown from a gig to a real commitment.” That

commitment shows up most vividly in how he talks about his role — not as performance, but as participation in something larger than himself. “It’s incredibly special as a man to speak from a woman’s perspective,” he explains. “I strongly believe that we, as men, need to stand with our female counterparts to tackle the social ills we face as a society. That stage gives me a platform to do exactly that.”

A STAGE BUILT ON ENERGY

Ask Mafa for a single standout memory and he doesn’t hesitate; 2025. Alongside fellow presenters Kaycee Rossouw and Gino Fabbri, the trio brought a chemistry to the stage that has become the stuff of Challenge folklore. “We were on fire — we really brought the house down,” he says. “That energy is unforgettable.” It is a feeling he chases every year; thousands of women gathered in one place, moving with shared purpose. “Inspired and energised,” is how he describes the view from the stage. “Looking out at thousands of women, all moving with purpose, gives me goosebumps every time.” For Mafa, Gqeberha itself plays a starring role in that feeling. “The friendly city spirit and the sense of unity,” he says, are what set this leg of the Challenge apart. “Gqeberha shows up with heart.” He has watched

that heart grow more visible each year, with increasing numbers of women joining from the city’s townships — many of them, he notes, treating Challenge Day as a rare day of de-stressing and self-care carved out just for themselves.

#CELEBRATEHER, EVERY SINGLE DAY

The 2026 theme asks South Africans to honour the strength, spirit, and stories of women everywhere — and Mafa has a simple, unadorned way of putting it into practice. “To me, #CelebrateHer means giving our queens and princesses the respect and humility they truly deserve, every single day,” he says. That conviction extends well beyond Challenge Day itself. “We should show up for women every day, not just on Challenge Day,” he insists. “Men need to be part of these campaigns and conversations. Our presence matters.” It is a principle he applies close to home. His wife, his daughter, and his sisters are, in his words, the women who have shaped him most — and he makes a point of showing up for every occasion that belongs to them, consistently and without fanfare.

AN INVITATION, NOT A PERFORMANCE

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and show up — you won’t regret being part of this prestigious event. You’ll leave inspired.” To the women who might be lacing up for the very first time, nervous about the unknown, his message is just as warm. “Come and have fun,” he says. “It’s a great outing — full of participation, laughter, and good energy. You belong here.”

SPAR AS THE QUIET CONSTANT

Behind every Challenge Day stands a constant presence Mafa is quick to credit; SPAR. “SPAR’s ability to touch lives through this event is encouraging,” he says. “They don’t just host a race — they create impact.” That impact, for him, is rooted in genuine inclusivity. “SPAR is truly ‘There for you,’” he reflects, echoing the brand’s own promise. “They live that slogan by building a community where every woman feels welcome.” It is a sentiment that resonates with his own instincts as a giver. “If I had all the money, I’d make even more change,” he admits. “But partnering with the SPAR Women’s Challenge gives me real satisfaction knowing I’m part of an initiative that’s making a difference.”

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2026

With the Gqeberha leg returning on 26 September 2026, Mafa’s ambitions for the year are characteristically bold; bigger numbers than ever before. “I’m looking

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forward to the numbers surpassing 2024 and 2025,” he says. “Let’s make it the biggest one yet.” He is putting his own platform to work to get there, too. “I want to use my reach on social media and radio to canvass for more entries and get even more women to the start line,” he says — a reminder that his commitment to the Challenge doesn’t switch off when the stage lights do. Given what 2026 has asked of so many people, his hope for the women who do cross that start line is gentle but pointed. “2026 has been a tough year for many,” he says. “I hope every woman walks away with a renewed sense of hope and a little ease from their burdens.”

MORE THAN A RACE

When asked what he hopes the SPAR Women’s Challenge will be remembered for, decades from now, Mafa doesn’t

reach for a grand statement — he reaches for the truth he has lived for three years running. “That it was more than a race,” he says. “It was a movement.” It is a sentiment that has clearly reshaped him in turn. “Being part of a cause like this is encouraging,” he reflects. “It’s changed how I show up — participation inspires me.” To the readers of My Gqeberha Challenge magazine, his message is unguarded: “I love and enjoy every moment of this race — from the build-up to the main event. My commitment to #CelebrateHer is real.” Perhaps that is the simplest distillation of what Mafa brings to the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha stage each year — not performance, but presence; not a guest appearance, but a walk alongside. Thorn among roses, by his own admission. Champion of women, by everyone else’s.

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A Needle, a Thread, and a

Factory Floor Cecilia Fourie

Cecilia started at the Association for Persons with Disabilities (APD) cutting fabric. Twenty five years later she leads the organisation — and her team is sewing the T-shirts that thousands of women will wear on Challenge Day.

he grew up on a farm in the Eastern Free State in a home shaped by hard work and plain-spoken faith. The women around her did not talk much about resilience — they simply got on with things. When life pressed down, they pressed back. Cecilia carried that lesson with her when she left the farm, and it is still with her now, in the corner office she never once imagined occupying. Her path into sewing began in Grade 4 with what she describes as the best needlework teacher she ever had. “It didn’t feel like a choice,” she says. “It chose me. The bug bit me and I’ve been hooked ever since.” Years later, that same instinct for craft brought her to the doors of APD Nelson Mandela Bay where she started not as a manager or a strategist, but as a cutter on the sewing floor.

FROM THE FLOOR UP

Her first mornings at APD were spent at the cutting table, measuring, marking, trimming clothing orders, and thinking about how to reduce wastage without sacrificing quality. Afternoons shifted to administration — client 46

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calls, paperwork, and the daily business of keeping a department running. She reflects now that it was the best possible education. She learned the organisation not from a briefing document, but from the inside out. What followed was a climb that took decades. Seamstress, then Sewing Supervisor. Assistant Manager, then Sewing Manager. Deputy Director, then Executive Director. Each step was hard-won. “The Board and my predecessor saw leadership potential in me before I saw it in myself,” she says. “I matched that faith by pushing myself and always giving more than 100%.” The most difficult moment was when she moved from Deputy Director to the top role. She was in her early forties and the world had just been turned sideways by COVID-19. APD, similar to every other organisation in the sector, faced an existential question: How do you keep the doors open when the funding landscape has collapsed overnight? Cecilia’s answer was to pivot fast. APD began manufacturing masks — more

MY CHALLENGE than 500 000 of them. “Faith was my anchor,” she says simply. It is not a throwaway phrase. She returns to faith throughout the conversation, not as a metaphor but as an operational fact. When she was weighing other job offers — and there were several financially attractive ones — she prayed and could not find peace about leaving. So, she stayed.

THE 50/50 GAMBLE

APD has been serving persons with disabilities in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro for decades. Its work is necessary; training, employment support, wheelchair provision, and care. Three legacy projects define its footprint, namely Wheelchair Wednesday, the Motherwell Disability Hub, and what is now its most ambitious undertaking, APD Manufacturing NMB; the clothing factory at 68 Paterson Road.

The factory is the physical expression of an idea that Cecilia describes without any PR varnish; NPOs have to survive. Funders want to see sustainability. Grants are not permanent. And so APD began, carefully and with no blueprint to follow, building a commercial operation alongside its charitable one. She is clear-eyed about how unusual this is. “We believe we’re making history with a 50% business, 50% charity model,” she says, “with no guidelines available, using years of hard-earned experience”. The factory now produces PPE, school clothing, corporate garments, and retail clothing. It did not happen overnight and it did not happen cleanly. “It’s an evolution. We’re still growing into it.” Not everyone found the shift easy. Moving from a purely care-driven culture to one where commercial targets matter created tension in

some quarters. Cecilia does not pretend otherwise. Her approach was to make the vision explicit; the business exists to fund the care, not to replace it. When people could see the logic, the buy-in followed. “Change can cause tension,” she says. “But we showed staff and supporters the bigger picture.” The balance she keeps returning to is not merely organisational. It is personal. “Success used to be measured one way. Now it’s about vision, balance, and no stagnation.” She talks about blending experience and youth, about learning from failure without being stopped by it, about the discipline of trial and error when there is no safety net.

6 000 T-SHIRTS AND A THEME THAT FITS

When SPAR approached APD to manufacture the official T-shirts for the 2026 SPAR Women’s Challenge

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Gqeberha, the conversation was, in Cecilia’s telling, a natural one. APD and SPAR have a working relationship that stretches back 14 years. When SPAR sharpened its focus on supporting local businesses and APD launched its factory, a partnership for the Challenge made sense to both sides. It is also APD Manufacturing NMB’s biggest order since the factory opened. Six thousand T-shirts. The specialised fabric, a custom colour, took 90 days to source. Once 48

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it arrived, the factory had three weeks to cut, sew, brand, finish, and dispatch every garment. Fifty-six employees are involved across the production chain — from order planning through cutting and sewing to quality control and dispatch. Cecilia pauses when asked what it means to her personally, as someone who started on a cutting table, to see her organisation produce the garment that thousands of women will wear on Challenge Day. “That’s powerful,” she says. Then, after a moment: “With the theme #CelebrateHer this year, it’s extra special. It’s also a celebration of Support Local.” The people sewing the T-shirts are not employees completing an order. Some of them plan to participate in the Challenge themselves. The young adults at APD — people with disabilities who train and work at the organisation — have been checking in weekly, asking when they are going. “For them it means being included,” Cecilia says, “and celebrating what we built together”.

WHAT SHE’S BUILDING NOW

Her mother is her #CelebrateHer. She describes her without fanfare. Her father became disabled when her mother was 38 and pregnant with her fifth child. Her mother raised the children, supported her husband, and never let circumstances define the outcome.

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“Her courage and resilience taught me what #CelebrateHer really means.” When Cecilia looks at the young women working in the factory today, she talks about careers, not mere jobs. APD develops people, she says, not mere garments. There are already success stories on the floor — people who came through training and stayed to build something. In 10 years, she wants their story to be one of leadership and new skills, built inside an organisation that gave them a platform when other doors were closed. Her message to business is direct. Stop seeing limitations first. Persons with disabilities, given a real chance to work and grow, deliver. The proof is on the factory floor at 68 Paterson Road and it will be visible to every woman who pulls a magenta T-shirt over her head on 26 September. To the women lacing up for Challenge Day, she offers this: “#CelebrateHer is for you. With hard work, resilience, belief in yourself, and faith, you can climb the ladder and reach your dreams. Celebrate every step — because your story is worth celebrating.” She started with a needle and a thread. She’s building with people and purpose now.

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Period. Full Stop. There is a particular kind of poverty that does not make it onto most people’s radar. It does not look like an empty plate or a disconnected phone. It looks like a young woman sitting at the back of a lecture hall, too anxious to concentrate. It looks like a student who stops coming to class for a few days every month and hopes nobody notices.

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t is period poverty — and in South Africa, it is more common than most people want to admit. At Nelson Mandela University (NMU) in Gqeberha, a quiet but determined effort has been underway to change that. And this year, the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha is lending its platform to help.

She Noticed

Shirani Nhlangwini did not set out to lead a movement. Neither did the team around her in Residence Life and Student Development at NMU. They set out to do their jobs — supporting students in residence, making sure young women had what they needed to get through each semester. But the day they heard students quietly asking staff for sanitary products because they simply could not afford them, something shifted. “Some students would miss classes or isolate themselves during their menstrual cycle,” she says. “That reality made it clear that this was not a onceoff challenge, but a barrier affecting students’ dignity and academic participation.” Shirani works in ResLife and Student Development within the Department of Student Housing at NMU, where her focus is student development, wellness, and building communities where students can actually thrive. It was through that daily, ground-level engagement with young women in

residences that the scale of the problem became impossible to ignore. What set the team apart was not that they noticed — others had noticed too. It was that they refused to move on from what they had seen.

Building Something That Lasts

The NMU initiative is not a once-off donation drive. It is a structure, built deliberately and sustained carefully. Residence staff are trained to respond. Student leaders are positioned as the first point of contact, because they are often the person a struggling student will approach before anyone else. A dedicated colleague has been assigned full-time to run the project and its awareness campaigns — someone students know, someone they can find without fear of embarrassment. “We approach the conversation from a place of dignity, wellness, and human rights,” Shirani explains. “Once students realise the discussion is not about shame but about support and empowerment, the stigma begins to decrease.” Products are collected and distributed through residence networks in ways specifically designed to protect privacy, because the shame attached to period poverty is part of the problem, and any solution that does not account for it will fall short. The programme has also been careful to bring men

into the conversation. Both male and female students participate in awareness campaigns, because normalising menstruation across gender lines is part of dismantling the stigma that keeps students silent. Partnerships with the Mina Cup Foundation, SPAR, and NMU’s own Engagement Office have helped grow what began as a grassroots response into something more durable. The student body has responded in kind — those who receive support speak of relief and feeling seen, while those who do not need it have stepped forward to volunteer and contribute to donation drives. “There has been a noticeable shift,” Shirani says. “Students are more open to discussing menstrual health, and there is greater willingness from both staff and students to support awareness campaigns.”

The Numbers Behind the Silence

When asked how many students the NMU initiative has reached, Shirani is careful and honest. The impact is real, she says, but difficult to quantify. What she can say is that students have regained confidence, returned to class, and re-engaged with residence life once access to sanitary products was no longer something they had to worry about. The cultural shift on campus — students no longer suffering in silence, others stepping forward 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

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to give — may be harder to measure but is no less significant. “Even small interventions can make a meaningful difference. Institutions have a responsibility to create supportive environments where students can thrive.” For Shirani, the solution is not charitable — it is structural. “There needs to be stronger institutional commitment to menstrual health as part of student support and gender equity policies,” she says. “Access to sanitary products should not depend only on donations. It should be integrated into broader wellness and support systems in schools, universities, and communities.”

The SPAR Women’s Challenge Joins the Fight

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that goes beyond the finish line. On 26 September, thousands of women will make their way to Pollok Beach at Summerstrand for the 10km and 5km Challenge — and alongside the energy, the music, and the community, there will be a pad donation drive. Participants are encouraged to bring sanitary products on Challenge Day, which will be collected and donated to a beneficiary in the Gqeberha community. In an event that draws women from across the Eastern Cape — corporate teams and school groups, families and running clubs, first-timers and seasoned participants — the potential reach is considerable. “When we celebrate women, we create spaces where they can participate fully — without barriers. Addressing period poverty is one way of affirming that every young woman

deserves dignity and equal opportunity.” For Shirani, the connection between Challenge Day and the NMU initiative is not simply a donation opportunity. It is a platform that carries the conversation beyond the university gates and into the broader community. “It helps people understand that period poverty is a societal issue, not an individual struggle,” she says. She sees the relationship as the beginning of something longer — a partnership, not a transaction. “The goal is to build ongoing partnerships that continue supporting students and raising awareness long after the event itself.” That longer view is consistent with everything the ResLife and Student Development team does. They are not interested in once-off gestures. They are building something that lasts

MY CHALLENGE will see that this cause has a community behind it. And Shirani, speaking for a team that noticed, refused to look away, and built something real from quiet conversations and urgent need — will keep showing up. She showed up for those students. Now thousands of women will show up at Pollok Beach on 26 September — and some of them will bring a packet of pads. It is a small thing that means everything.

— and the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha is a fitting partner for that ambition.

#CelebrateHer

This year’s SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha theme is #CelebrateHer — a movement that recognises the resilience, strength, and stories of women everywhere. Ask Shirani what it means to her, and she answers without hesitation. “It means recognising the resilience, strength, and dignity of women and girls. It is about creating spaces where women are supported, empowered, and able to participate fully — without barriers.” That is, in essence, what the ResLife and Student Development team’s work at NMU has always been about. Not a campaign, not a once-off drive. A collective commitment to making sure

that something as basic as a sanitary product never stands between a young woman and her education, her confidence, or her sense of self. The SPAR Women’s Challenge has always been about more than a finish line. It is about what women do when they stand together — the conversations they have, the causes they carry, the community they build. Adding period poverty to that conversation is not a detour. It is exactly the point.

Still Showing Up

Period poverty will not end on Challenge Day. The problem is too entrenched, too systemic, too long ignored for one morning at Pollok Beach to fix it. But something will shift. A conversation will start that would not otherwise have started. A donation will reach a student who needed it. An organisation

What Is Period Poverty? Period poverty refers to the lack of access to menstrual products, sanitary facilities, and education around menstrual health. In South Africa, research has consistently shown that a significant proportion of girls and young women miss school or university during their periods due to inability to afford sanitary products. The knock-on effects — on attendance, academic performance, social participation, and mental health — are well-documented. What is less documented is what it takes to fix it at community level. The NMU initiative offers one answer.

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Show Up Every year, the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha welcomes new voices into its family of Challenge Ambassadors — women whose stories capture exactly what #CelebrateHer is about. This year, that welcome goes to two remarkable women, namely Karen Barnard, a sports scientist and endurance coach who has spent 14 years building a community of stronger, more confident women in Gqeberha; and Gabi Baatjes, a storyteller, content creator, and firsttime triathlete who has turned her own doubt into other women’s encouragement. Different paths, same destination; Pollok Beach on Challenge Day, and a shared belief that showing up is where change begins. 54

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Karen Barnard Strength Through Every Step

Karen’s relationship with movement began long before she opened her own training facility. “I’ve always been active and passionate about sport, so studying Human Movement Science was a natural choice,” she says. Fascinated by how the body moves, performs and adapts, she built a career around helping people train, recover, and perform at their best, later adding sports massage and cupping to her services. Opening her own facility, she says, “was the natural next step, giving me the freedom to build a facility aligned with my values”. Fourteen years on, that facility has become exactly that. Behind that steady progress lies a formidable athletic record; multiple marathons, the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon, an Ironman, several Half Ironmans, and five Comrades Marathons. Of them all, Comrades

stands out as “one of the greatest tests of both mental and physical endurance”, Karen reflects, and training alone through the toughest moments has taught her how resilient she is. That same resilience now drives her towards the Original Six World Marathon Majors. What began as a girls’ trip has become a genuine pursuit; New York, Berlin and Chicago are already behind her, with Boston, London and Tokyo still to come — ideally, one day, alongside her daughter. When she was asked to become a Challenge Ambassador, Karen’s first reaction was simple: “That’s really cool”. Having run the Challenge before, stepping into this new role felt like “a real privilege” — a chance to connect with the community in a different way. Above all, she hopes people see someone who values balance; “exercise, work, family, friends, and enjoying life” — pillars she tries to hold in place, imperfectly, every day. Ask what that balance actually looks like, and Karen laughs at the question. “I have to laugh at the phrase ‘training at an elite level’ — I’d rather describe myself as training at a committed level”. Her days start before 6h00, weaving school dropoffs, client sessions from as early as 6h15, her own training, a business to run, and a family dinner to get on the table. Weekends mean

long runs and children’s birthday parties in the same breath. “My idea of balance has definitely evolved, both as a coach and after becoming a mom,” she says. “You just make it work.” Karen’s momentum isn’t only her own. She lights up recalling clients who once saw themselves as “non-runners” before training for, and finishing, a World Marathon Major. “Watching their confidence grow throughout the journey was incredibly rewarding,” she says. It’s that same encouragement she offers any woman hesitating over her first Challenge Day: “I’d ask: ‘What have you got to lose?’ You have the opportunity to gain confidence, improve your health, meet new people, and discover that you’re capable of far more than you think.” After 14 years of coaching, Karen hopes what stays with her clients is simple: “Lasting results come from consistency and balance, not perfection.” For her, #CelebrateHer means honouring the big wins and the small ones alike, and this year, for the first time, she’s planning to enjoy Challenge Day itself rather than race it — “running the day rather than racing it”.

Where the mind goes, energy flows. - Karen Barnard 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

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Gabi Baatjes

Comfort Zones Are Just the Starting Line For Gabi Baatjes, storytelling has always been the thread running through everything she does; her career in PR and social media, her Master’s research in Media Studies, and the online community she’s built along the way. “Stories have the power to connect people, inspire change, and make others feel seen,” she says. It’s that same instinct that led her to share her own story rather than only tell other people’s — her recent, very public leap into her first triathlon. “I’ve always believed that growth happens outside your comfort zone,” Gabi says, and signing up as someone who wasn’t naturally a swimmer, cyclist or runner tested that belief fully. Every training session, she says, taught her discipline, resilience, and confidence. Crossing the finish line “wasn’t about the medal; it was about proving to 56

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myself that I was capable of so much more than I had imagined”. It changed the way she sees herself and made the Challenge Ambassador role feel like an obvious next step, given how openly she’d already been sharing her journey online. “Because I know what it’s like to doubt yourself,” Gabi says simply, explaining why she said yes to the role. If sharing her journey encourages even one woman to lace up her tekkies or take a first, frightening step, she says, it’s worth it. Her hope for the women following her story is straightforward: “You don’t have to have everything figured out before you begin. You can be a mom, build a career, study further, chase big dreams, and still make time to invest in yourself. Progress is far more important than perfection.” As a mom to her son Carter, alongside a full-time role as a PR and Social Media Brand Coordinator and her Master’s studies, balance for Gabi is a daily negotiation. “It definitely isn’t always easy,” she admits

— training happens before sunrise some days, after work on others. What keeps her going is knowing she’s modelling something for Carter: “Showing him what perseverance, discipline and self-belief look like.” Motherhood, she says, has made her braver than she ever thought possible: “Strength isn’t about never being afraid, it’s about showing up anyway.” Her advice to anyone who has never run or trained for anything before is refreshingly simple: “Start exactly where you are. You don’t have to be the fastest or the fittest, you just have to be willing to take the first step. Every experienced runner was once a beginner.” For Gabi, the Challenge is simply the next chapter after her triathlon, proof that the beginning was never the end. What she hopes her ambassador role adds to her existing community work is authenticity: “Growth isn’t always glamorous. Sometimes it’s early mornings, tired legs, and choosing consistency

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Celebrate every version of yourself — because the woman you’re becoming is worth every step of the journey. - Gabi Baatjes over comfort.” To Gabi, #CelebrateHer means recognising the strength women show every single day; women who keep showing up, who lift others while chasing their own dreams, and who “choose courage over comfort”. Two very different journeys, then — one built over 14 years of coaching and five Comrades finishes, the other sparked by a single, terrifying triathlon — but the same destination waits for both women on Saturday, 26 September 2026; Pollok Beach, Summerstrand, surrounded by thousands of women moving together. As Karen and Gabi both know, #CelebrateHer was never about arriving with everything figured out. It’s about showing up anyway, one committed stride at a time, and SPAR is proud to walk, run, and celebrate every one of those strides alongside them. 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

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UNDER PRESSURE On 27 May 2023, a red carpet was rolled out at the finish line of the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha. It was not for a celebrity or a politician. It was for a woman who had been running since 1983 — a woman who had driven herself, ill and exhausted, through 10 kilometres that morning on sheer force of will. When Grace de Oliveira crossed that line, she became only the second woman in history to complete 100 SPAR Women’s Challenge races, equalling the record held by her long-time training partner and rival, Sonja Laxton. Someone handed her a towel embroidered with the number 100. Someone else produced a cake. 58

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he says she felt like a celebrity. She also says she nearly didn’t make it to the finish. “I’d had a sinus infection and had been on antibiotics,” she recalls. “At some point in the race I felt awful and completely low on energy. I actually had to walk on about three occasions — something I never do. But pulling out was not an option.” Grace has never been someone who pulls out. That, in essence, is her story.

A RUNNING LIFE BEGUN ON A DARE

Grace first laced up her running shoes in 1983, at the age of 21. She was living in Durban, engaged to Eloi — her future husband — a good runner whom she had taken to watching at races. She began going for jogs along the beachfront. One afternoon, two well-known KwaZuluNatal women runners stopped her on the road and told her she looked like a promising athlete and should join their club. She mentioned it to Eloi. He laughed. “You, a promising runner, never,” he told her. That was all it took. “If somebody challenges me, I will always take up the challenge,” she says, with the quiet confidence of someone who has spent four decades proving people wrong. Eloi later admitted it was reverse psychology. It worked. He became her coach. She started winning. The rest, as she puts it simply, is history. By 1992, Grace was a competitive runner with nearly a decade of road racing behind her. She had taken two

years away from competition after the birth of her daughter, Daniela, in 1989 — and a lingering injury had kept her out further. When she lined up in Durban for the SPAR Women’s Challenge on 7 June 1992, she was 33 years old and finished second in a time of 35:17. It was the beginning of something she could not have imagined.

FROM OPEN TO GRANDMASTER — A CATEGORY FOR EVERY CHAPTER

What sets the SPAR Women’s Challenge apart from most road races is its commitment to age categories; a structure that Grace credits as one of the most meaningful aspects of the series. She competed as an open runner in the early years, regularly finishing in the top 10 nationally. She

then moved into the veteran, master, and eventually grandmaster categories as the decades passed. Each transition, she says, brought a new sense of purpose. “As you move into the next age category, it gives you an incentive to be the best that you can be in that particular age category,” she explains. “It doesn’t mean that you’re any less of an athlete. It just means that you were up there before, but age got in the way.” SPAR’s introduction of prize money and Grand Prix points across age groups is, for Grace, not merely motivational; it is a statement of values. It tells older women that they still matter, that their effort still counts, and that there is a podium for them too. Over her career, she collected numerous category wins and podium finishes. She

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MY PACE she collapsed at the finish line of the Cape Town leg of the SPAR Women’s Challenge. The medical diagnosis that followed came with advice to stop racing. Grace — characteristically — challenged the situation and continued to compete. She would go on to run 24 more races.

THE HUNDREDTH RACE Comrades Finish in 2000

SPAR Women’s Challenge 10km 1997

100th Race SPAR Women’s Challenge Silver Bowl

Two Oceans 2006

won the Grandmaster 60+ Grand Prix Series in nothing short of extraordinary fashion, claiming second place overall in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

THE RACES SHE ALMOST DIDN’T RUN

No story of this length and this scope arrives without its injuries. Grace has had many — most handled with the same combination of patience, rehabilitation, and sheer stubbornness she brings to everything. But two threatened to end her career entirely. In 2014, a severe foot injury led to surgery in 60

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November 2015. She was out of competitive running for three and a half years. Most athletes would have called that the final chapter. “I thought that was the end of my running career,” she admits. “But God gave me a second chance and slowly but surely, after surgery and rehab, I was able to return to competitive running in June 2017.” She returned to the SPAR Grand Prix circuit at her 74th race in Durban in 2017. The years away had cost her some speed. They had not cost her anything else. Then, in September 2021,

Grace’s 100th SPAR race, in Gqeberha on 27 May 2023, was not merely a personal milestone. It was a piece of South African women’s running history. Only Sonja Laxton had reached that number before her, and the two women — bound by decades of friendly rivalry, mutual respect, and a shared obsession with documenting every training session and race result — had long since understood that Grace would one day get there. “Sonja was a bit ahead of me, and her aim was to get to 100 SPAR Women’s Challenges,” Grace explains. “That’s when it became a goal for me too.” The build-up included photoshoots and media interviews. SPAR and the local organisers planned a celebration. There was, Grace recalls, enormous expectation — her own included. And then race morning arrived, and she was ill. She ran anyway. She walked three times on the course. She crossed the red carpet at the finish line, received her embroidered towel, cut the cake, accepted the engraved silver bowl with her name on it, and felt — as she describes it — truly humbled.

MY PACE She then kept running for two more years. Her 101st race was in Tshwane in August of the same year. Her 114th and final race was in Jozi on 5 October 2025. At Gqeberha on 27 September 2025 — her second-to-last race — she finished second in the Grandmaster 60+ category, in a time of 45:13. She was 64 years old.

MORE THAN A RUNNER

What Grace is most proud of, she says, is not any single medal or finish time. It is something more difficult to measure. “Throughout my whole running career, achieving what I did — all my provincial titles and representations at many SA Champs, international representation at numerous World Champs, all my Comrades and Two Oceans gold medals and all my SPAR Women’s Challenge achievements — I still held down a full-time job, ran a home, and raised my daughter, Daniela, never being a full-time athlete. That is rare these days.” It is rare at any age, in any era. The image of Grace that emerges from this interview is not that of a single-minded sportswoman who sacrificed everything for the podium. It is a woman for whom running was one thread in a full and purposeful life — a thread she kept hold of with extraordinary consistency for more than four decades. She kept training diaries going back to 1983. Every session. Every distance. Every pair of shoes. Every name of every athlete who finished

SPAR Grand Prix Series Awards 2025

ahead of her. Not as a record of obsession, but as evidence of care — for the sport, for herself, and for the story she was writing.

STEPPING BACK - NOT AWAY

Retirement, Grace is clear, was not a decision made lightly. She thought about it carefully, she says. She prayed about it. She asked herself whether she was still adding value, whether the passion was still there, whether she was doing justice to herself. “I want people to remember me for my achievements and the legacy that I have left behind,” she says. “I don’t want to ever be called a ‘has been’. It’s always best to retire when you’re at the top.” She will continue to train — road running, aquajogging, cycling. She will be at the SPAR Women’s Challenges, watching, supporting, available to mentor. Running, she says,

is in her blood. It is simply no longer something she does competitively. As for her message to the women who come after her — the 50-year-olds who wonder if they are too old to start, the 60-year-olds who think they have had their time — Grace does not hesitate. “It is never too late to start running. You don’t have to start running to become a fast runner. Any movement is better than being a couch potato. It’s good for your health, your emotional well-being, for keeping you in shape, and for building a healthy social circle of friends.” And to the Grace of 1992, young and anxious on the Durban start line? “Use that God-given talent and chase your dreams. Never give up until you’ve achieved your goals and reached the stars. Keep fighting to be the best that you can be, as that’s what gives life purpose.” 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

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Stop Tracking,

Start Living Why women everywhere are ditching the data and reclaiming the joy of feeling well. 62

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icture the scene: It’s 06h00, your alarm has barely faded, and before your feet have touched the floor, you’ve checked your sleep score, logged your resting heart rate, scanned your hydration reminder, and received a notification informing you that your stress levels are — unsurprisingly — elevated. Welcome to the world of optimised wellness. For many women, it’s quietly become one more thing to get right. This year, something is shifting. According to the Global Wellness Summit’s 2026 Future of Wellness report — the industry’s most authoritative annual forecast — we are witnessing a powerful backlash against the relentless, data-driven approach to health that has dominated the last decade. Researchers are calling it the OverOptimisation Backlash, and women across the world are leading the charge.

WHEN SELF-CARE BECOMES SELF-PRESSURE The wellness industry — worth an estimated $6,8 trillion globally — promised us liberation. It gave us wearables that track our every heartbeat, apps that score our sleep quality, and programmes that measure our mindfulness minutes. Somewhere along the way, the pursuit of well-being began to feel a great deal like a performance. For

women already carrying the mental load of work, family, relationships, and community, that performance has become exhausting. The Global Wellness Summit describes this cultural moment starkly; the backlash against stressful, high-tech wellness is reaching activist levels. Wellness experiences, the report argues, are pivoting — from measurement to meaning, from clinical data to catharsis, from self-surveillance to selfexpression. In short, women are no longer interested in being optimised. They want to feel alive.

Psychologists and wellness practitioners are increasingly noting what they call techno-wellness fatigue; a creeping anxiety born not from neglecting health, but from the relentless pressure to account for it. Sleep scores, macro ratios, step counts, heart rate variability — each metric represents a benchmark, and benchmarks, by their nature, can be failed. For South African women in particular — who often navigate the dual demands of professional ambition and deeply held community and family responsibilities — wellness culture can feel culturally misaligned. Rest is not a recovery metric. Connection is We are hardwired to not a biometric. Joy seek pleasure and joy — not is not something you download.

to perform wellness for a dashboard.

THE INVISIBLE COST OF CONSTANT MONITORING

For working mothers and women in demanding careers, the burden is particularly acute. The same drive that helps women excel — the tendency to monitor, manage, and meet every expectation — can make wellness culture feel like yet another arena in which to succeed or fall short. When a mindfulness app sends a notification asking whether you remembered to breathe today, the irony is almost too much to bear.

RETURNING TO WHAT ACTUALLY FEELS GOOD

So, what does the anti-burnout movement look like in practice? According to the Global Wellness Summit, it looks like dance. It looks like gathering. It looks like moving your body because it feels good, not because your fitness tracker told you to close your rings. The report highlights what it calls the Festivalisation of Wellness — a rising wave of wellness raves, sober morning dance events, community sweat sessions, and multi-day immersions that prioritise participation over performance. The emphasis is on judgement2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

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free spaces where people explore what intuitively feels good, building healthier habits through joy rather than discipline. Sound familiar? If you have ever crossed a finish line at the SPAR Women’s Challenge Gqeberha — whether running, walking, or somewhere beautifully in between — you have already lived this philosophy. The event has never been about pace or performance data. It has always been about showing up, feeling the energy of thousands of women around you, and remembering what your body is capable of when it is celebrated rather than scrutinised. “Joy is not a metric. But 64

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it might just be the most powerful wellness tool we have.”

PERMISSION TO REST WITHOUT RECORDING IT

The shift also extends to how women think about rest, nutrition, and mental health. The 2026 trend report points to a broader cultural pivot towards intuitive, embodied approaches to well-being — listening to the body rather than interrogating it. Practices such as breathwork, somatic movement, women’s circles, and simply spending time in nature are gaining ground precisely because they ask nothing of you except presence. This is not anti-science.

It is pro-humanity. The most effective wellness practices, researchers are finding, are the ones we will actually sustain — and sustainability requires pleasure, not punishment. As you lace up your shoes ahead of Challenge Day on 26 September 2026, consider leaving the performance pressure behind. You do not need to optimise this. You do not need to log it, score it, or share your stats. You just need to show up — for yourself, for the women running beside you, for the pure, uncomplicated joy of movement. That, as it turns out, is exactly what wellness looks like in 2026.

MY LIFESTYLE

THE MENTAL WEIGHT WOMEN CARRY — AND WHY IT IS TIME TO TALK ABOUT IT

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There is a particular kind of tired that sleep does not fix. You know the one. You are sitting down, maybe watching something, maybe merely staring at nothing. And yet somewhere in the back of your mind, it is still running: Dentist appointment, no milk, school shoes, that email I have not answered, Mom’s birthday. This is the mental load. And for most women, it never really switches off.

What is the mental load?

It is not the doing — it is the knowing. The planning, the anticipating, the constant awareness of everything that keeps a household, a relationship, or a working life running. The internal radar that never quite powers down, always scanning for what is slipping and who needs what. This is why “What do you need me to do?” can feel more exhausting than the task itself. The labour does not begin with the doing. It begins with knowing what needs to be done at all. That part is almost always invisible.

Why women carry more Women carry a disproportionate share of domestic and emotional labour, even in households where both partners work full-time. The research on this is consistent. Women are more likely to track medical appointments, school commitments, and the emotional temperature of everyone under the roof. The pattern repeats at work. Women are more often called on for what researchers term office housekeeping; smoothing over tensions, mentoring, organising, and absorbing friction so the room stays comfortable. This work

is real. It is also rarely counted.

The link to mental health

Anxiety and mood disorders are significantly more common in women. Women are nearly twice as likely to experience anxiety, with depression affecting women at higher rates across most age groups. Hormonal factors are part of the picture, but chronic mental overload is increasingly recognised by researchers as a major contributor to that gap. When your mind is always on, always managing, the body 2026 • MY CHALLENGE MAGAZINE

MY LIFESTYLE

holds a low-level stress response almost constantly. That sustained activation produces the kind of exhaustion that is hard to explain — not from one difficult day, but from years of quiet accumulation. The hopeful part; more women are naming this now. Talking about it openly, seeking support without apology, and choosing mental wellness with real intention.

What actually helps

“Just ask for help” is not the full answer. Asking still requires managing the response, and that is still labour. What makes a real difference is redistribution; others taking genuine ownership of tasks, not waiting to be told what to do. Start by naming what you carry. The mental load cannot be shared if the people around you have never had to see it. The conversations that make it visible — even the uncomfortable ones — are where real change tends to start. Protect your capacity to say no. Not because you do not care, but because carrying everything eventually means dropping something that matters. A limit is not a failure. It is maintenance. Seek support when you feel yourself thinning. A trusted friend, a support group, a mental health 68

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professional. You were not meant to work all of this out alone. And rest, not as a reward for finishing, but as something you are entitled to regardless. Rest is not what happens after everything is done. It is what makes everything else possible.

More than what you carry

#CelebrateHer is not only about celebrating what women achieve. It is about celebrating who women are, beyond what they

manage, organise, and keep running. The women who carry quietly and still show up. Who are stretched thin by invisible weight and still choose to be present. That deserves to be seen. As you cross the finish line this Challenge Day, know that what you carry is not weakness. The load you manage every day — without applause, often without acknowledgement — is its own kind of strength. You are more than what you carry. And you are worth celebrating, exactly as you are.

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