Nine months pregnant Tamara Bogle, 81-year-old Roy Thomas, and veteran marathoners yesterday joined 850 persons who descended on Stadium East to support the 29th staging of the Heart Foundation Health Fund Run.

A pregnant Tamara Bogle (left) and husband Nick partipate in yesterday's Heart Foundation Health Fund Run at the Stadium East field. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Executive Director of the Heart Foundation of Jamaica Deborah Chen said yesterday that the fund run was to "encourage exercise so that people start a healthy lifestyle. Most of the risk factors for heart diseases and other major diseases can be alleviated by exercise".

She noted that the fund run was also to "raise funds to help the work of the Heart Foundation 'cause heart disease is the main cause of death in Jamaica. About 30 per cent of our population have some form of heart disease and these funds would go towards our screening programme to help us buy equipment to screen people islandwide."
She said the target was to raise $5 million this year.

Meanwhile Tamara Bogle, two weeks from delivery at the Andrews Memorial Hospital, walked nine laps sporting a Red Stripe T-shirt, alongside her husband Nick.

"I am due in two weeks and I don't want the baby to come out any earlier," she said.

Her husband Nick added: "I am very proud and she did one lap for each month that she was pregnant. She is a strong black woman and I am not expecting anything less."

Eighty-one-year-old Roy Thomas, with church service to begin shortly, did two laps before leaving the track.

Denzil Lewis, 59, running his eighth fund run, ran 50 laps in preparation for this weekend's Reggae Marathon in Negril.
With 18 children from seven mothers, he said the running made him "feel like 25 years old".

Two-time masters champion Owen Greaves, 47, also preparing for the Reggae Marathon, ran his 57 laps in one hour and 30 minutes.

Title sponsor for the second year, Wisynco, provided refreshments through WATA and Welch's grape juices and their workers came out in their numbers, along with BNS, IBM, First Caribbean, JDF, Stewarts Auto Sales, UDC, and Observer Teenage.

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