While athletes run for miles to earn their medals, the bravest young champions are often found in hospital corridors. Bling for Bravey honours these incredible children by gifting them the generously donated medals they’ve truly earned through their strength and resilience.
Johannesburg, South Africa (14 January 2026) – If you’ve got old medals sitting in a shoe box, gathering dust in your garage or have a pesky spouse nagging you about decluttering the home, then you are in the best position to impact and comfort a little warrior!
Bling for Bravey is an initiative that celebrates and rewards the bravery of orthopaedic patients at orthopaedic children’s hospitals through generously donated medals.
The concept is to distribute race finishers medals to the children in hospitals to recognise and celebrate their bravery while facing their conditions. The common thread of dedication and bravery of training for short or long distance races is mirrored by the patients preparing for surgery or during recovery.
Bling-for-Bravery has to date handed out 3,500 medals, books, teddy bears, clothes and stationery to children across the country.
Dean Dicks, who founded Bling-for-Bravery, explained the impact these “old medals” have.
“We have witnessed how a single medal can make a child so overwhelming happy and confident after surgery; how our miles on the road put so many smiles on these kids’ faces and a small medal memento for their brave achievement after surgery will be remembered and cherished forever.”
The charity is hoping to collect more of these tokens of achievement and comfort to give to little lives fighting big battles. Several drop off points have been set up around Gauteng, including:
- Crunch Fitness Studio, 1 Vosloo Street, Northmead, Benoni (Contact: Cass)
- Cycle Lab, Fourways (Contact: Anette)
- Run-A-Way Sport, Lynwood, Pretoria
The cutoff date for medal drop-offs is 30 January. For those in other areas, you can contact Cass from Crunch Fitness Studio in Benoni on the contact details here to courier. Alternatively, you can follow and message Bling for Bravery.
Your hard-earned medals could take on a whole new meaning for children navigating their own toughest marathons.
Sources: Linked above.
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