Marathons in Bucharest have started to attract more runners in recent years and many from the corporate world choose to make a change in their life and prepare to run a marathon. The consultancy firm PwC will have 200 runners in the Bucharest International Marathon, which is due to take place on October 6, 7.

“This is the most substantial participation of PwC Romania so far in any edition of the Bucharest Marathon in terms of the number of registered runners, with participants in all the contests of the competition, from the children’s race to the Marathon,” said Peter de Ruiter, Tax and Legal Services Leader, PwC Romania, himself a participant in the half-marathon (together with the PwC team in the 2012 summer half marathon in picture).

PwC Romania will have 8 participants in the Marathon race, 37 participants in the half-marathon, 17 teams registered for the relay race (4x10,5 km), 92 runners in the popular 4 kilometer race and four children registered for the kid’s race.

The PwC will support the Association for Dravet and other Rare forms of Epilepsy. Dravet syndrome is an incurable form of epilepsy which begins in the first year of life and affects one in every 20,000 children. Besides extremely difficult to control epileptic crises, Dravet syndrome usually causes developmental dysfunctions, tardiness in speech development and problems with walking.

“We try to create awareness for a malady that is often undiagnosed in Romania and to encourage the authorities to invest in a modern diagnosis center in order for everybody affected by this illness to be able to benefit from the necessary treatment as soon as possible”, Peter de Ruiter went on.

The Association for Dravet and other rare forms of Epilepsy was formed in the summer of this year. There are about 200,000 patients with epilepsy in Romania according to the World Health Organization statistics, but doctors suspect the number to be higher, of 300,000 to 500,000 persons, according to PwC. There are about 40 children with a Dravet syndrome diagnosis, but the illness is much under-diagnosed, due to the lack of knowledge and funds for testing.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: PwC)