‘It’s totally crazy but fun and all for a very worthwhile cause’, was the reaction of Dr. Stephen Brincat, Chairman of the Oncology Department at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital when he confirmed that he will be joining the other seven kayakers on the 50 nautical mile Malta-Sicily Kayak Challenge.

In fact the focus of all is the drive associated with the event, namely the fund raising campaign in aid of the Malta Cancer Foundation who plan to use the money collected to set up a palliative care unit.

‘Kayak For Cancer’ , the theme of this 54-mile daring Challenge scheduled for Friday 27th June, will now see nine kayakers test their strength and endurance to cross over from Marsalforn Gozo to Pozzallo in Sicily. Dr. Brincat, who has been kayaking for some 13 years now, will be using a locally built fibreglass double kayak that has just been launched.

“I’m afraid no brand name. In fact it’s been built by one of my patients and still has some finishing touches to be done”, remarked Dr. Brincat.

Dr. Brincat’s partner Sandra Fsadni will be joining him on this trip which he describes as “a once in a lifetime opportunity and sounds very exciting”.

While the other seven kayakers are intensifying their preparation schedule with long and even night training, Dr. Brincat declared that his workouts for the big day were “Nothing like what I had originally hoped to do. My work and the very windy weather we’ve had over the last few months have seriously dented our training programme”.

In fact he jokingly remarked that “I’m depending on the guys of the support fleet to fish us out of the sea when we get exhausted unless we get a miraculous sustained burst of adrenaline”.

The other kayakers on the’ Kayak for Cancer’ are Dorian J. Vassallo, Robert Pullicino, Albert Gambina, Nicholas Valenzia, Joseph Borg, Mark Bugeja, and Gregory Camenzuli.

Meanwhile a series of Billboards are on display in various localities meant to create more awareness of the event and for its main cause that of raising funds in aid of the Malta Cancer Foundation.

The Malta-Sicily Kayak Challenge is also supported by a pool of sponsors namely, GasanMamo Insurance Ltd, Farrugia Investments Ltd, Datatrak plc, Go Sicily Properties, Tower Supermarkets Ltd (Sliema), Virtu Ferries Ltd, and Errea by Tutto Sports Ltd.