Could “taming” multiple myeloma become iconic to “The Untamed”, as the gruelling Cape Epic challenge is known? Last year Mark Olivier was set and ready to take part of what is considered the world’s toughest mountain bike challenge when weeks before, and after having just completed the Tankwa Trek in the Karoo, he suddenly had to cancel The Cape Epic. He was diagnosed with the cancer, leaving his partner Debbie Talmage — herself a cancer survivor — to do it with her coach Ty White.
Olivier, who has since had stem cell treatment, has set his sights on doing next year’s Epic. During his life before multiple myeloma, he had already done “six or seven” Cape Epics as part of the Absa team, driven by knowing that money raised would go to impoverished schools in the Karkloof area. Filling the gap between Olivier’s 2025 and 2027 events, local multiple myeloma survivor Con Malherbe (63), along with Jared Hinde (36) who lives with diabetes, will be tackling “The Untamed” this year, in March, and plan to raise R250 000 for the Cancer Association of SA (Cansa).
Having once been given limited years to live, Malherbe has since completed events like the Wine to Whales in the Western Cape, the Berg and Bush and the Sani2C, “living my best life” — a legacy to life before cancer when he won the SA MTB Marathon Championships title at Karkloof. Even his recent training for the Cape Epic has seen health-related obstacles: first suffering a fall that led to his requiring an operation on his wrists following a scapholunate ligament tear and a custom-made brace; and more recently a few plasma cells have been picked up in his bone marrow, calling for the attention of his “crack shot” Pretoria haematologist. Meanwhile, his medical advisers have encouraged him saying that there should still be fine to do the Cape Epic.
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He relayed that he had been advised that his symptoms were early and unlikely. However, the results of further blood tests would offer a clearer idea. Had his red blood cells dropped, it would be another story and he would be short of oxygen, he said.This weekend, Malherbe and Hinde are putting themselves to test on a four-day training camp in the Drakensberg, “nice heat training, on gravel roads — crossing no farms because of the foot-and-mouth crisis”. Meanwhile fellow multiple myeloma survivor and cyclist Olivier (58), who plans his return to “The Untamed” next year, has started with gentle training from his son, Oliver (25), a sports and medical science graduate who will be his partner in the 2027 race.
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