CAPETONIAN runners Braam Malherbe and David Grier, who last year ran a literal “smile” route around the tip of Africa to raise funds for Operation Smile, have handed over a R2-million cheque to the charity endeavour.

Malherbe and Grier, who stopped in both Plettenberg Bay and Port Elizabeth on their 3278km world-record trek, ran from Namibia to Mozambique to raise funds for corrective surgery for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lips and palates.

Their efforts were done in association with Round Table SA and Cipla medical suppliers.

The men set off from Oranjemund, Namibia, on July 1 and completed their epic trip in Ponta d‘Ouro in Mozambique on October 8 last year, covering an average 45km a day, six days a week.

“The final amounts pledged are all in and it has been officially revealed that a total of R2-million was raised. Some of these funds will enable a surgical mission to be held in Mpumalanga later this year,” spokesman Ros Walsch said yesterday.

Grier and Malherbe kept a daily blog of their journey. On the final day, as the journey ended at the ocean‘s edge in Ponta d‘Ouro, Grier wrote: “I sank to my knees and quietly sobbed within ... thank you for giving me this opportunity to help make a difference.”

Malherbe described the last moments before the reaching the finish line as feeling “natural and free”.

“Running onto the beach with my country‘s flag flying high, my heart was flying even higher.”

He said yesterday that the R2- million would afford 364 children the chance to undergo surgery to repair their facial deformities.

“It is humbling. Many of these kids felt ugly inside and are totally ostracised. They don‘t fit in and other children laugh at them. But a simple procedure can change their lives forever. These children will be able to smile proudly for the first time and I hope they pay it forward and enhance other people‘s lives,” he said.

In 2006, the two men became the first people in recorded history to run the length of the Great Wall of China in one attempt, taking 98 days to cover 4200km and making it possible for 55 children to smile proudly following their surgery.