By Duncan Mlanjira
Stewart Kambewa, the cyclist has done several phenomenal things but the climax, this time around is worthy mentioning — not just that he has wedded his sweetheart Norah, but he was part of the bridal convoy involving his dear fellow cyclists.
Kambewa took off his wedding jacket, remained with the waist coat and joined his fellow cyclists on the bridal convoy on the streets of Blantyre.
The convoy
It cannot get better than that for the man who has achieved a lot in charity using the power of sport.
Kambewa has just returned in time for his wedding after his triumphant Kilimanjaro to Sapitwa Charity Challenge, which was a charity cycling and mountain hiking adventure in aid of raising funds to build an academic centre for Friends of Mulanje Orphans (FOMO) that he took with his colleague John Moyenda.
With his best friends
How did he become a household name? He first shot to fame together with his colleague, Kwame Kaira when they cycled 1,149km in 8 days from Nsanje to Chitipa in September 2016 to raise funds towards building boreholes in some communities of the country.
Other daring challenges he has done include a 10km uphill from Zomba City Central up to Sunbird Ku Chawe Inn cycling saddle-less that took him in just under 45 minutes on September 9, 2017.
He did this to raise funds to pay fees for two underprivileged secondary school students from Mulanje and Chiradzulu while in December 2017, he also cycled for fun for four days from Senga Bay in Salima, heading for Lilongwe where he headed along the Blantyre-Lilongwe M1 Road up to the junction for the Khwekhwerere route all the way to Monkey Bay.
With Norah, his sweetheart
From there he headed to his base in Blantyre through Mangochi, Liwonde and Zomba road, covering 663kms.
In between, he has also done a saddle-less cycle up the Chikwawa escarpment from downhill at Thabwa police roadblock all the way to Blantyre, which he dubbed ‘Chikwawa Hills and Meanders Challenge’ covering 20km in 1:6:11hrs.
He also took part in the Nation Publications Mother’s Day Charity Fun Run by volunteering to cycle 311kms from Blantyre to Lilongwe September 8, 2019, in 13:45hrs and the proceeds from the donations he received went towards the Safe Motherhood charity fund set up by the Nation newspaper.
Norah and friends
In April, he also cycled 30.4kms saddle-less up the Masasa-Golomoti escarpment route from Salima M5 road junction to the Blantyre-Lilongwe M1 Road, in aid of FOMO.
After the Kilimanjaro to Sapitwa Charity Challenge, Kambewa and his colleagues travelled to Mulanje where they made presentation to inspire and motivate FOMO Independent Secondary School students.
The presentation was organised with the aim of sharing the story, experience they had during the Kilimanjaro to Sapitwa Charity Challenge.
Brave young man
Together with FOMO founders, Mary and Keith Woodworth, they visited FOMO Independent Secondary School and Mangani centre project site where they met the children, the centre’s main committee and chiefs.
“We thanked the children for remembering us in their prayers throughout our Kilimanjaro to Sapitwa Charity Challenge and also asked them to take ownership when the project starts.
And to crown it all, Kambewa decided to do the extraordinary by creating a special bridal convoy involving the friends who supporting I’m all the time.