Run For Their Lives is a charity run organized by the Rotaract Club of Colombo Uptown in order to raise funds towards the purchase of medicine for the National Cancer Institute, Maharagama and bring about awareness of the plight of cancer patients in Sri Lanka. A tight budget and free treatment often puts the Cancer Hospital in dire need of essential medicine. The Rotaract Club of Colombo Uptown has therefore taken it up as their mission to annually donate as much medicine as possible with the help from local businesses and the general public to ensure these shortages are kept to a minimum.

The Rotaract Club of Colombo Uptown (RCCU) was chartered in 1995 after which the club went into a period of inactiveness till it was revived in 2010 by a group of 14 friends, 8 of which are still active in the club. The club is currently flying strong under the able leadership of its 5th revival president, Rtr. Nikitha Senaratne. For the first time in its history, Colombo Uptown awards and appreciations at the 24th District Assembly held in June 2014 including the prestigious Award of Citation for the Most Outstanding Rotaract Club of the year. RCCU is a community based Rotaract Club with a diverse member base of lawyers, accountants, economists, engineers, bankers and programmers. This diversity together with the common interest in community service is the main reason why the club prospered through the years. Run For Their Lives, a brainchild of revival member Rtr. Hassan Ismail, became the clubs signature project after the success of RFTL 2010.

Run For Their Lives 2014 is the franchise’s fifth consecutive run. Aiming to attract over 3000 participants and raise over 3.8 million rupees, Run For Their Lives has exponentially grown over the years from the simple event it was in 2010 with 375 participants raising around Rs. 350,000 to an extremely popular charitable gathering in 2012 with 1700 participants raising over Rs. 1.3 million. The year 2013 was certainely a highlight as the amount raised was just over Rs. 3.4 million and over 2000 runners were present. This is largely due to the fact that Run For Their Lives is no longer just a 5 kilometre run; together with the fun fair held afterwards with games, food and drink and souvenirs, RFTL is a place for people young and old alike to make new acquaintance, meet enthusiastic people with similar interests in social service and create memories while eagerly looking forward to the next year’s instalment.

It has been especially popular due to the unique and well designed T-Shirts handed out to participants every year. The T-Shirts are even worn well after the event and offer the sponsors and contributors the publicity they deserve. The very affordable registration fee of 500 rupees provides a participant with said T-Shirt, refreshments, access to the fun fair and instant photo printouts while guaranteeing every cent is donated as medicine to the Cancer Hospital.

This year RFTL 2014 will be spearheaded by Joint Project Chairpersons Rtr. Stefan Jaro, Rtr. Ritchie Adaman and  Rtr. Abdul Qadir.  This year Run For Their Lives will be held on the 13th of December from 4.30 PM onwards.

To find out more about Run For Their Lives visit http://www.rftl.lk.