NSRI fundraiser at Harry B’s

Open heart surgery survivor Greg Bertish has teamed up with the NSRI for a children’s inspirational tour up the East Coast with a stopover in Port Alfred on Thursday.

Other towns on Bertish’s fundraising drive for the NSRI are Plettenberg Bay, Port Elizabeth, Jeffreys Bay and St Francis, where they have held movie nights, presentations, give-aways and auctions.

Bertish will screen his 50-minute documentary, called , and will be armed with hundreds of his popular children’s book which will be given away or sold on the tour.

He has also visited children’s homes along the way and given talks at schools. The story behind

is an inspirational tale about overcoming the odds and is suitable for children age six and up.

depicts Greg’s fight for survival against a rare tropical bacteria that attacked his heart three times over six years.

He sets out to conquer a childhood dream of sailing an Optimist (a small 8ft children’s sailing dinghy) around the Cape of Storms.

His eight-day adventure takes him across the shark-infested waters of False Bay, around Cape Point and up the West Coast to Langebaan Lagoon 200km away.

This journey symbolises the 200 days he spend in hospital fighting the bacteria and the R200,000 he aims to raise for the new intensive care unit at Red Cross Children’s War Memorial Hospital.

Join Bertish this Thursday at Harry B’s. The cost is R75 for adults and R45 for children. The show starts at 6pm.

Funds raised will be split evenly between the nearest NSRI base station and the Little Optimist Trust.