Day Ninety-Six: miraculous recovery for 'dead' swimmer

This is quite an extraordinary story. Today, South Africa's Cape Argus newspaper reported that a man pulled from the water off a Cape Town beach last week, and thought to have drowned, is now making a good recovery. The man, John Deeks, was visiting from the UK. His story is quite miraculous - he is not a good swimmer and cannot recall how he got into difficulty, but he was found 'lifeless' in the water by two men and then attended to by a doctor who happened to be on the beach. Paramedics arrived and took him to hospital. By this time, he had not taken a breath for about an hour! Amazingly, he was resuscitated - to the huge relief of his mother, who had already been informed by police of his death... Deeks now faces a new challenge, namely finding and thanking the two men who rescued him - who are, as yet, unidentified...

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Thank you to Reasons to be Hopeful reader, Catherine, who sent me this interesting website. It outlines the plans of six cyclists who will travel the full length of the African continent in a 'Carbon Neutral Cairo to Cape Town Challenge' to raise money for the charity Millennium Promise, which supports selected African villages in addressing the full range of development challenges they face. (To date there are 79 villages supported via this (somewhat controversial) approach.) The cyclists plan to arrive in Cape Town in June this year. Pretty impressive stuff! They are also covering all their own costs, so any funds they raise will go directly to charity.