Durban’s Cherry Armstrong, founder of CELEBRATE LIFE SA, has a determination to make a difference in the world.
It’s the busy people who CREATE the time to do good, like Cherry, a married lady with a daughter and 2 sons, owning her own Palliative Care business looking after patients at home who have terminal cancer, who raised a million Rand for Hospice in 2005 and is currently raising a further R1 million for the rhino preservation Tusk Trust.
Celebrate Life SA is an organisation aimed at creating awareness and facilitating support across society to alleviate human and environmental suffering , using the energy of committed individuals, social networks and broadcast platforms. Its essence lies in respect for the land and its people. A group of caring people, who have known each other and worked together for many years, became inspired to establish a project that not only made use of their individual talents, but also confronted some of the more serious issues facing our planet, with the express purpose of ameliorating as many of these issues as possible.
The initial project in 2005 was to raise R1 million for the Durban Hospice. The aim was to create awareness of Hospice and show it in a different light to the current belief system. A group of twelve women climbed Kilimanjaro and carried out many fund raising projects over the course of a year to achieve this, at the same time raising the profile of Hospice and the work its dedicated staff do. The second project currently in progress is to raise R1 million for The Tusk Trust (of which Prince William is the Royal Patron), to help save our rhino from poaching and death. A group of women have just completed the Lewa half marathon in Kenya. This project has already garnered media interest and public support as well as the backing of the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks.
She says,” I am now in the process of registering this as a NPO called “Celebrate Life SA” and we will always be about looking after our heritage and our people in Africa.” Her charming partner in this venture is Lara Plumtree, married to John our great Sharks coach. She’s a mom of 3 boys, worked in finance and will now head up Celebrate Life SA’s fundraising and awareness campaigns with Cherry.
