Dear Editor,

By any metric Sagicor’s Sigma Run is the largest and most impactful charitable event in the Caribbean.

Its 26th staging two days ago handsomely surpassed its target by almost $13 million through the generosity of not just the 30,000-strong registrants but many more donors eager to being forces for good.

In keeping with tradition, the targeted beneficiaries were institutions in the human health sector. While these beneficiaries are deserving and confidently expected to create much value for our citizenry, there can be even greater value from the hugely successful 2025 Sigma Run if the other two arms of the One Health triad — animals and the environment — were to be offered some support.

Contemporary definitions of health recognise the interdependence of human, animal, and environmental health. The health of society requires each arm to rely on the health of the other two arms, as easily seen in the value of clean air, water sources, therapy animals, and the medicinal value of numerous plants.

In a nod to the organisers, growing recognition of One Health was seen in the notable efforts at “greening” the 2025 run by the strategic inclusion of the recycling of plastic bottles and food wastage.

The organisers are encouraged to use the surplus of the 2025 Sigma Run to support other institutions which operate to provide health to animals and the environment. Institutions such as the Jamaica Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Jamaica Environmental Trust, Montego Bay Animal Haven, and the Alligator Head Foundation, amongst others, could be made “surplus beneficiaries” in full support of our nation’s health.

Not only can we be ‘Out of many one people’, but one people practising One Health.

Dr Sophia Ramlal

Proud Sigma participant and veterinarian

irievet@yahoo.com