Standard Chartered calls on UAE community to ‘Run for a Reason’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) December 3, 2011 -- United Arab Emirates, 30 November, 2011 – Registration for the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon 2012 is open, and Standard Chartered calls on the UAE community to ‘Run for a Reason’.

The rationale behind this year’s call to action is that everyone has a reason to run, or to take up running for the first time. People run because they want to stay fit, improve their health, compete in races, support a cause or just try something new.

Standard Chartered Bank’s reason for running this year is to raise awareness about Seeing is Believing, its global initiative to help eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020. Many of the Bank’s staff will run one of the three distances on marathon day to support this cause.

The Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon is for everybody, not just runners. The Marathon Village will be a great location to support friends and family, or spend a fun day out, with great food, exhibits, special offers on sporting goods etc etc

Commenting on this year’s event, Jonathan Morris, CEO, Standard Chartered UAE said:

“The Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon is a great event on the UAE’s sporting calendar and we are glad to be supporting it. Our efforts will be channeled into raising awareness and funds for Seeing is Believing and to promote healthy living for our staff and the UAE community. We encourage everyone to register and run with us for a reason.”

Runners can choose to run the 3k, 10k or 42k races and registration is open till 31st December 2011. The marathon route is more exciting this year, with the start and finish line in Downtown Dubai next to the Burj Khalifa.

To register, runners should visit the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon 2012 site: www.dubaimarathon.org.

Standard Chartered has recently announced - at the 2011Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting - that it will raise US$100 million by 2020 to build sustainable eye-care services across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, almost trebling its fundraising for the prevention of blindness from 2003 to date. With nearly 90% of avoidable blindness occurring in the developing world, the issue affects economic productivity in countries where Standard Chartered operates. Through its latest commitment, the Bank aims to support further progress towards eliminating avoidable blindness by 2020.