Cape Town - Ability activist Chaeli Mycroft has been awarded the Forbes Woman Africa Young Achiever award, for her continued efforts to dismantle stereotypes about disability.
The Forbes Women in Africa Awards honours the continent's most inspiring women in various sectors and industries.
This year’s event took place at the SunBet Arena, Time Square in Pretoria earlier this month.
Forbes Africa and Forbes Woman Africa Awards managing editor, Renuka Methil said: “These awards recognise the stellar work of women on the continent, and the judging panel and editorial team adopted a set of well-entrenched criteria to shortlist deserving nominees."
Mycroft started the Chaeli Campaign in 2004, to promote and provide for the mobility and educational needs of disabled children, among others.
She founded it with her sister Erin and lifelong friends, the Terry sisters (Tarryn, Justine and Chelsea), who were all between the ages of six and 12 at the time.
Her other achievements include graduating from UCT with an MPhil in Human Rights Law and being an author, becoming the first woman quadriplegic to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, and the first disabled athlete to complete the Comrades Marathon, among others.
In her acceptance speech she said: "We talk about equity and equality, and I think it’s about understanding, and bringing everybody exactly as they are into every conversation that we need to be in. Then we can work together to build the equality that we all talk about.”
Mycroft is currently writing her second book.
In June she embarks on her next adventure called 7in7, which will see her and running partners Mark Ferreira and Ivo Riva participating in seven Comrades Marathon distances in seven days – six days from Benoni to Pietermaritzburg and ending with the Comrades Marathon (her 6th) on day seven (11 June 2023).
Cape Times