Last year, when I started working as a journalist, I had the privilege of participating in a cross-country trip alongside Kia South Africa, an amazing opportunity any aspiring travel journalist yearns for. We were to embark on a massive journey around the country to visit seven towns in seven days. The goal of the Seven7 Drive – as the initiative is known – is to travel around the country and visit pediatric oncology wards with gifts for the patients. The 2021 trip was a milestone moment in my life, and it made me aware of the struggles these kids, their families and the courageous healthcare workers fighting alongside them have to endure. I fell in love with the Seven7 Drive and vowed to be a part of it, in some way or form, the rest of my life.
Getting started
So, on 20 September this year, Danie Botha and I met up at Kia's headquarters in Edenvale, from where our journey commenced. The first leg was a relatively easy drive to South Africa’s third most populated city, Durban. We came in via the N3 and were greeted by some truly awful weather as it was pouring down with rain. Nevertheless, we made it to the Parklands Hospital to drop off the first of the gifts. As we entered the the colourful pediatric oncology centre to hand over the
