By Izzud deen Redzuan
IPOH, 2 August 2015: Maybank Islamic Berhad, the Islamic banking unit of the Maybank Group, is organising its second charity cycling event today called ˜Cycle Save a Childs Heart 2.0 following the success of its inaugural event last year.
This year’s event is expected to raise RM100,000 from 2,000 cyclists compared to last year’s 1,000 which raised RM50,000.
There are three main categories, namely are the 10km (VIP Ride), 30km (Fun Ride) and 120km (Endurance Ride).
DYMM Paduka Seri Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah, officiated this morning race and later participated in the 10km VIP Ride together with DYMM Raja Permaisuri Perak Tuanku Zara Salim, and Perak Menteri Besar YAB Dato Seri DiRaja Dr Zambry Abd Kadir.
This initiative, held in collaboration with the National Heart Institute (IJN), which targets to raise funds for paediatric patients not only in Malaysia, but also for underprivileged children across the South-East Asian countries especially where the Maybank Group operates.
Dr. Zul Ahmad, one of the 30km cyclist said, œThis charity is not only to ease the burden of family and patients who could not pay the cost of their treatment but also to show to world that we are brothers and sisters, and need to help each other.
Under its five-year collaboration with IJN, Maybank Islamics social responsibility programme will be highly focused on children, health and education as their main task as well as to promote a healthy lifestyle among Malaysian youth through sports.
œToday, youth participation has shown a slight increase compared to the first event at Putrajaya. Hopefully the number will increase in the future and turn to healthy lifestyle, said Abdul Hafiz Mohd Saad, a cyclist from Kuala Lumpur.
Since 2012, the total sponsorship for heart surgeries from Maybank Islamic climbed to RM2.55 million which included the amount raised from last years event.
The event included the handing over of a cheque of RM100,000 by Maybank Islamic CEO Muzaffar Hisham to IJN CEO Dato Dr Azhari Yakub, witnessed by DYMM Paduka Seri Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah, Perak Menteri Besar and Maybank Islamic chairman YBhg Dato Seri Ismail Shahudin.
Khalid Rashid, cyclist from Ipoh said, œIt is heart-warming to see a bank (Maybank Islamic) going out this way to do some good for the publis while strengthen their customer trust.
To date, RM1 million has been utilised by IJN to help 42 Malaysian children and seven international patients.
After Perak, this event will be organised in other cities and towns nationwide as the Maybank Islamic chairman’s, Dato Seri Ismail Abdullah aims to make it an annual sporting event charity and its effort and IJN to help the Malaysia government to promote our country as a preferred medical hub in the Asia.
The evening event was followed by a lucky drawn with winners getting gift vouchers worth RM55,000 in the form of travel packages, bicycle vouchers to electronic gadgets.
By the end of 2016, 58 beneficiaries are expecting to receive the medical helps throughout this programme, which consist of 40 locals and 18 regional patients.***
Photo credited to Najmi Nawawi