Kumala to sponsor cricketer’s charity walk

The Kumala wine brand will sponsor former cricket star Sir Ian Botham’s charity walk across South Africa, which begins tomorrow.

The eight-day walk, called ‘Beefy Walking the Rainbow Nation’, will begin on Thursday 10 December at Llandudno beach, Western Cape, and finish in Pretoria on 17 December.

The walk is timed to mark the 30th anniversary of his first ever charity walk from John O’Groats in Scotland to Land’s End in England in 1985, where he raised over £1m to aid research for Leukaemia and Lymphoma.

This time a number of South African charities will benefit from the walk; Nazareth House, The Chipembere Rhino Foundation, the Kliptown Youth Program and The Waitrose Foundation Southern Africa.

Paul Schaafsma, CEO of brand owner Accolade Wines, said: “Kumala is delighted to be partnering with Beefy on his walk of the Rainbow Nation. The tireless work that Sir Ian continues to do through his Foundation, has raised over £13 million (R279 million) to date.

“This is an astonishing achievement and one that we are proud to be sponsoring with our Kumala brand.”

The third day of the journey begins at the Kayamandi Primary School, which has two classrooms that Kumala aided in funding, Schaafsma said.

Throughout the walk, Kumala will be holding wine tastings for the walkers, sponsors and spectators.

A virtual wine tasting event will be run alongside the walk on the 9th December across the Kumala Facebook page using #KumalaWines.

Kumala recently ran a competition through the Daily Mail from which it two people have been chosen to fly to South Africa and walk alongside Sir Ian Botham.