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Landmark partnership for GROE

NAIROBI, October 14 – The Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) series will for the first time partner with the Seeing is Believing initiative which tackles avoidable blindness. 

The partnership between GROE and Seeing is Believing follows on from World Sight Day on 9th October and the recent launch of Standard Chartered’s new brand campaign, ‘Balanced.’

Standard Chartered Group Finance Director and Chairman of Seeing is Believing Richard Meddings said, “The Greatest Race on Earth is the world’s premier running relay challenge and is an ideal partner for Seeing is Believing and with strong international media interest it will be a major support in promoting its activities.”

“Every five seconds someone around the world goes blind and the tragic thing is that 75% of cases could have been prevented or cured. Everyone who is involved in raising funds and sponsoring runners will be making a direct contribution towards preventing avoidable blindness around the world,” he added.

This year will have a Visually Impaired All-Stars team which will include Paralympic gold medallists Henry Wanyoike, Qi Shun of China and Yuichi Takahashi of Japan, as well as Brazilian Paralympic star Alex Mendonca.

The four will be running to raise awareness and funds for Seeing is Believing.

Taking place alongside the Nation’s Challenge will be the Half Marathon Staff Challenge, which will see 72 Standard Chartered staff teams from 31 different countries also running to raise awareness and funds for Seeing is Believing.

Seeing is Believing is a partnership between Standard Chartered and the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), and has raised $17 million to date and aims to raise a further $20 million by 2014.

The initiative will directly benefit from the race series with runners being encouraged to use their participation to raise sponsorship and awareness for Seeing is Believing.

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The GROE series has one of the richest prize funds in world athletics of $1million. The Greatest Race on Earth 2008/09 sees teams of four athletes run one of the four marathons each, the winning team being the one with the quickest cumulative time.

The series gets underway with the Nairobi Marathon on Sunday 26th October and then moves on to Singapore on 7th December, before heading to Mumbai on 18th January 2009 and then finishing in Hong Kong on 8th February 2009.

Men’s and women’s teams representing 25 countries from around the world will be competing in the elite Nation’s Challenge.

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