SCMP Rat Race team as the Power Rangers (and the Marvel character Black Bolt).
Source:
https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1871934/colourful-characters-hit-central-rat-race-support Education
Colourful characters hit Central Rat Race in support of Hong Kong mental illness patients
Costumed heroes pack charity event to promote awareness and raise money
SCMP Rat Race team as the Power Rangers (and the Marvel character Black Bolt).
Characters from Captain America to Tarzan took to the streets of Central yesterday as more than 500 people donned fancy dress for the annual Central Rat Race to raise awareness of mental health problems, with the city’s chief secretary pledging to do more to promote psychological welfare.
Every year since 2006, the Rat Race has turned the busy streets of Central into a fun-filled obstacle course for half a day.
Racers are tasked with navigating their way through to raise money for the charity Mindset, which supports mental health organisations and projects in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
Technician Marco Lau Ho-nam, 22, sported a leopard-skin costume in a Tarzan-like style.
Running for the first time with seven colleagues from German conglomerate Siemens, Lau said the race was fun and challenging.
“We surveyed the obstacle course before the race … You have to be calm. In one of the legs, you’ve got to run up three levels of escalators,” Lau said.
In the past 10 years, more than 4,000 people have run the race, raising more than HK$21 million.
Speaking before the race, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said: “The government attaches great importance to the promotion of mental well-being among our citizens.”
Lam said the government would soon launch a three-year campaign to promote understanding of mental health issues.
She said the government would roll out a project under the Lotteries Fund to train recovered mental-health patients to offer help to those in rehabilitation.
More than 200,000 people sought treatment at public psychiatric clinics last year. But there are only about 300 psychiatrists employed at public hospitals.
Meanwhile, The Peak was transformed yesterday into a sedan chair race track and music carnival as it hosted the 41st Sedan Chair Race & Bazaar. Teams of eight carried sedan chairs with a passenger 2.1km from Matilda International Hospital in Mount Kellett Road. Nurse Joyce Smith started the event in 1975 to publicise the hospital’s work.
Participants in the 41st Sedan Chair Race & Bazaar on The Peak on Sunday. Photo: Jonathan Wong
The South China Morning Post is a media partner of the Central Rat Race.