Every year, Sandile Mkhize pushes himself just a little harder in the Wings For Life World Run — a multicountry event in which all proceeds go to spinal cord injury research. After he incurred such an injury himself in a motorbike accident in 2013, the race has given him a platform to reformulate his identity and drown out the pitying voices routinely whispering in his ear. He talks to Luke Feltham about how people from across the globe come together to take part.
How did you come to participate in the Wings for Life race?
Well, I had my accident in 2013 and I spent quite a bit of time in hospital and rehab. Towards the end of my intense and acute rehab, my therapist at the time randomly mentioned the race to me in early 2016.
I was just excited to go, because this was the first time I was exposed to an event purely for people with a spinal cord injury. I wouldn’t feel singled out. Mentally, I also just knew it was time for me to get out and start living, because the majority of the time I was just at home or in my room doing nothing. I asked a friend to accompany me, we joined the race and I’ve been doing it ever since.
You mention that the initial attraction was that you wouldn’t be singled out. Did that give you the confidence to try other events?
Of course! It was a very important initial step to reintegrate myself back into society. I don’t think it was extremely harsh, but there were these subtle tones of, “I’m different; people are going to treat me differently; I don’t want to be treated differently.” Also, a lot of my identity, I thought at the time, was tied towards my image and how I presented myself to people.
Now I had to rediscover that, and I’ve never been able to rediscover that. Every conversation was always from a point of pity and it wasn’t straightforward. I just hated that.
So this was the first public event or space I felt confident enough to say, “No one’s going to ask me what happened. People are just going to ask me, ‘hey, are you well? What’s happening? Are you good? Cheers man, good to see you’.” And yeah, slowly but surely from that stepping stone I’ve reinvented myself. I’m still trying to find my place in the world, but at least I’m comfortable in my own wheels now.
How exactly does this race proceed?
So Wings for Life has a set of rules for wheelchair-using participants: you can’t use a hand-cycle [a low-slung tricycle], so you need to be in a [four-wheeled] chair And you move either by your own power or even with an electric chair — but I haven’t seen one of those. In short, I basically move around the same way that I do, except this time I’m moving three times as fast, if I can convince some people to push me along the way, and on the downhills.
And distance?
The distances vary. I think the first time I did it, it was about 9km. And then each year, I’ve tried to bring more people together to assist in pushing me to beat the previous time and it’s been a combination of 9km and 15km runs.
Are those the standard distances which people cover?
Oh, no. So the Wings for Life run is actually quite different. There is no finish line. Theoretically, you could run forever. Around the world at the exact same time there is a starting line, which is in the form of a “catcher car”. Everybody around the world — so if it’s in Jo’burg at 2pm, it’s in New York at 10am — starts at the exact same time.
And then there’s something called a catcher car, which starts at a particular speed and increases every 15 minutes, if I’m not mistaken. As it increases in speed, it catches up to you. Once it passes you, with the chip technology that they have inside the race packs, it then digitally records how far you have run. The race is inclusive: it’s for everybody. So if you want to walk 3km or you want to run 70km, like some of the pros, that’s possible too.
I assume things will be different this year?
So this year it is officially going to be an app-only run, held on 9 May. Before Covid-19, in 2019, it was a physical race and also an app race for people who were not able to be in the cities in which the race was being held; it was basically just a way to connect everybody and for everybody to join. This year, it’s going to be completely online with the app.
It is going to be very different, however, it is still raising money for the important cause of trying to find a cure for spinal-cord injuries. I speak for myself here: of course I’m disappointed in not being able to see the thousands of people who join, but I do think it will be interesting and exciting to connect with people digitally, because I think we’re nudged to communicate with the entire world, rather than just our own communities. We’ll see how it plays out.
Speaking of the goal, do you know of any significant strides that have been made medically from recent research?
Yes! In 2019, our last race, one of the guys was actually a beneficiary of one of the programmes. He started the race and actually took a few steps. Because of some of the research techniques that had been applied he was able to get a little more mobility in his legs. There has been a combination of investing in stem-cell research and funding certain labs as well. There’s also research now that’s moving towards epidural stimulation for spinal cord injuries.
So there has been progress, important progress. However, it is a very complex and difficult problem to solve. And, of course, you can’t just experiment on humans overnight. The thing that is also quite unique about this is that in some shape or form a lot of people are affected by spinal-cord research. And this particular problem is lucky to have what I consider the best human minds in the world working on the problem. With this type of support, I’m hoping it’s something we’re able to solve not too long from now.
To have something tangible come out of the race — that must be quite motivating?
It’s huge. I think also everyone has their own journey to run. It’s very weird that I think I’m somewhat more used to the world with my story and my injury.
I’m not passionate about doing this because I want to get a cure overnight and I’ll be sorted. I think it’s more that I care about the youngsters [and hope] they don’t have to go through the same pain and the same trauma. It’s not easy, man. It takes a toll on the individual; it breaks families as well, and the financial burden that comes with it … it’s just a lot.
I think for me, not being able to reach for the coffee is not the biggest deal in the world. But if I can be part of something that helps some kid not to have to go through what I went through then it’s worth it, of course.
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