Was it the Queen.? No
Was it the president.? No
Ok so it must have been a distressed Comrades runner.! No

So who was it being escorted through the debris and spectators on the 16 June, right in the midst of the Comrades marathon?

It was Cheryl, a distressed mother desperate to get Cherise, her chronic asthmatic daughter to the hospital emergency rooms for emergency medical treatment.

This is the true story on how it all happened;

The whole family and a friend were packing and preparing to go away for the long weekend. Suddenly Cherise had one of her asthma attacks. Nothing serious to begin with, as she sat on her nebulizer at home with me very close by monitoring. Cherise then decided that her nebulizer was not helping and in desperation, in between trying to gasp for air, she let me know that this was one of those emergency room situations. Well, it was the Comrades marathon and I had heard that roads were going to be closed, but where. Coming from Zimbabwe, I was not sure of the Comrades route so I phoned our security link up control room, and requested an escort to the hospital for a medical emergency. Security reacted by saying no problem they would send a vehicle ASAP.

Whilst parked on the roadside, desperately praying and waiting for security to respond, Mike, my husband, called me to say that security has called to say they are unable to assist as this was beyond their means, but they were sending an ambulance. Panic set in as we did not have funds to accommodate an ambulance. By this time, my hands were sweaty, shaking and numb on the wheel.

Then one of the the heroes of the day appeared, racing up onto exit 16 to meet me, a security employee. He raced and motioned for me to follow. So the race was on, through red traffic lights, hazard lights on both vehicles flashing. Then the approach of road closure on Stapleton Road. The security employee won with the first policewoman but then seemed to have problems at Old Main Road with the Metro police there. By this time I was in a state as Cherise sat next to me with red cheeks, white face, blue lips and gasping desperately for air. Just then a group of guys on trail bikes in blue uniforms pulled up next to me. I looked up, (tears streaming out of control down my cheeks), at one of the guys who seemed to be the team leader, and pleaded with him to please help. He lifted his visor, took one look at Cherise and then said "follow me."

We became the escorted vehicle in our own little motorcade, up Old Main road towards the hospital, three bikes in front clearing the spectators and traffic, whilst the Security vehicle and the rest of the bikes rode behind. The escort was all the way to the doors of the hospital and as we arrived, a hospital employee ran out with a wheelchair. In desperation I by passed the chair and raced into the emergency room where Cherise was attended to.

Cherise was now in good care so I proceeded back to my unlocked vehicle, which I had left parked outside emergency, only to find all the bikers, who were SAPS, parked around it with their helmets off. They questioned after Cherise and then left to continue their duties. The security officer stayed to ensure that all was taken care of. Whilst all this was going on Catherine, Cherise's friend, had broken down, I moved in to comfort her but was called into the room where Cherise was being treated and the security officer gallantly took over.

The hospital staff were amazed at the entourage arrival of this heroic group and stressed that they thought the president had arrived. Wow, what an amazing experience, what an awesome God, what an awesome Security company, what an awesome security officer and what an awesome Police Force. My thanks will never be enough as they all took time out to save my 10 year old Cherise who was having a chronic asthma attack.

This true story was a scary account to say the least. The last visit before this gallant save was to the ICU where Cherise was put onto heart monitors and 24 hour surveillance.

I had so many prayers going on for her, desperate prayers for her healing, for God to take away her asthma. However, it took for Cherise and her faith to receive answered prayer. She prayed and believed that God was going to take it away from her, she had faith and He had compassion. To date, since June of 2005, Cherise has not suffered another asthma attack, He took it away. God heard her and gave her relief, all because she trusted and believed in Him. What an awesome God we have! Jeremiah 33: 3 is God's number, just in case you need to call on Him.