From blindness to advocate and her 7th Comrades
Just over a year ago on 9 March 2022 - a day that is burned into Amanda's memory - she woke up feeling like her eye was being pierced by a hot poker. As a contact lens wearer since the age of 18, Amanda Cromhout never imagined that despite diligently cleaning her lenses, she would end up losing her sight in one eye. Possibly introduced by her contact lenses, organic matter found its way into a hairline crack in her cornea. "I had a puppy and was cleaning up doggy diarrhoea or I could have touched something else and rubbed my eye - they can't tell me exactly what caused the fungal infection," she says.
Inspired to help others who need treatment
That stabbing pain continued for three months until Amanda got the second emergency corneal transplant that she needed to treat the infection of the cornea. In the meantime, losing her sight in one eye hasn't dampened her spirit.
Instead, Amanda took up the plight to help the underprivileged with access to corneal procedures. "I started Blind Loyalty Trust because I realised that without the finest medical care, I could lose my eye. Through my health insurance, I was able to afford the medicine the specialist said I needed. Not everyone is as fortunate. So, when I was scared and in so much agony, I used to think, how on earth is someone who can't afford this treatment able to get help?"
Amanda found that many people don't get the help they need. So, the purpose of Blind Loyalty Trust is to raise funds and to work with the surgeon who helped her. As a trustee of Blind Loyalty Trust, it is a matter close to his heart and he gives his time and expertise to patients who are unable to access treatment. "The trust pays for the hard costs of corneal transplants, such as all surgical items and theatre time, if that's what the person requires," says Amanda.
Support Blind Loyalty Trust
Through the website, blindloyalty.co.za, the public can donate to the trust through individual and corporate sponsorships. Amanda also creates paid-for video content for businesses and brands. A book about loyalty excellence, called Blind Loyalty, and a Relate bracelet are in the works to boost Blind Loyalty Trust funds.
Running with Team Vitality and raising funds for Blind Loyalty Trust
Amanda's career in the customer loyalty space started in the frequent flyer arena and, now as the CEO of Truth, a loyalty consultancy, she understands what makes programmes such as Vitality work. Amanda is an active participant of Team Vitality through running and this year marks the seventh year she is running Comrades. As part of Team Vitality, Amanda will not only be wearing the Discovery Vitality colours and what it represents, she'll be dedicating her run to raising R100,000 for Blind Loyalty Trust. "I established the trust to help those who desperately need but cannot access treatment for this illness. Sight is a gift that we must never take for granted." Various athletes including her best friend, her "Heroes" on blindloyalty.co.za, are also joining her fundraising efforts.
Comrades and supporting people run deep in her veins
Amanda has a colourful collection of patches to match every outfit, and she says she'll be sporting a Comrades Marathon eye patch to match her Vitality kit on the day. "Being part of the Vitality team means camaraderie on the road and I'm really looking forward to calling out team members. This year my goal is to finish. I would love to do sub-11 hours, but I certainly don't want to be scraping in just before cut-off."
"Comrades runs deep in my veins," she says, recounting how, as part of the 2016 Unogwaja team, she cycled 1,700km from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg over 10 days to raise funds for Community Chest. The team replicated the route Phil Masterton-Smith cycled in 1933 to get to the Comrades when he couldn't afford the train fare from the Mother City to Kwa-Zulu-Natal. "After arriving in Pietermaritzburg on the 11th day, our team ran Comrades and raised money for the trust. I've always had massive goals and I do crazy stuff for charity," says Amanda.
Training for race day
As a wife and mother of three, with a demanding career, Amanda says she is ready to tackle race day. Working with a dietitian, running coach and personal trainer, which she says is critical, she wakes up at 4.30, runs two to three times during the week and then two long runs over the weekend. She also does cross training on the indoor bike. "The first half of Comrades is climbing, but the second half has a 20km downhill stretch that smashes your leg muscles to pieces if you haven't done your strength work. In the last three weeks leading up to race day we taper off in terms of the training."
Staying motivated is easy because working out makes her feel better
"The endorphins get me going so I don't press the snooze button. I just get straight up, put on my running clothes and off I go. Running is a wonderful way to spend time relaxing, joking, and making small talk as you run through the streets in the early hours of the morning," says Amanda who's been a runner since her youngest daughter was born 14 years ago. It was her eldest daughter who challenged her to run her first full marathon at age 42, 10 years ago.
Running with her vision impaired has its challenges. "I typically run with people who know me, and my closest friends run on my right side to protect me; they know how to run with me. But sometimes I run races on my own and I don't know if there's anyone near me because I can't see them. Even though wearing an eye patch the whole day is physically uncomfortable there's really no alternative to make people aware that I am unable to see, and I've had to get used to it."
On whether she will hang up her trainers when she reaches her 10th Comrades, Amanda says: "You always end up running 11. Once you've run 10, you get your permanent green Comrades number. When you see the runners with their green numbers, you take your hat off to them. So, it's a big thing in Comrades."
"It's good to be part of something that's broader than just running on your own," she says about running for Team Vitality. "And I take my holistic health quite seriously. I had a massive health scare that affected my eye - gratefully nothing else - but it really gave me a wake-up call that one day you can feel perfectly healthy, and the next day things could be completely different. So, I also use the Vitality Health Check to make sure I do relevant checks. It's important for me to stay fit and strong, and to have all my health parameters in the healthy range."
Amanda's vision loss is expected to be temporary, and she is hopeful that additional surgery will help her regain her sight over time. Amanda will be part of the Team Vitality panel on the day of Comrades.