Toon Bodyslam starts his charity run for hospitals

YALA, Nov 1 (TNA) -- Rocker Athivara “Toon” Kongmalai started his charity South-North Thailand run to raise funds for 11 public hospitals, in Betong district of Yala. The run started at a signpost reading a southernmost point of Thailand at an entrance of the Betong Mongkolrit tunnel at 6.09am. Toon planned to run 50.9 kilometers today. Many local authorities and people joined the run and gave moral support. On the same occasion, Toon received donations worth more than 300,000 baht from Betong people in addition to 40 million baht he had obtained before the run began. He ran on heavily secured Highway 410 (Betong-Yala) and stopped over for donation to a local school in Tanoh Maeroh sub-district. Toon intended to run 2,191km to Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai and hoped to finish the mission in 55 days or on Dec 25. On the way he will take a day off every four days of running. He earlier encouraged all Thai people to donate 10 baht each so that he could raise 700 million baht to buy medical supplies for 11 public hospitals in Yala, Surat Thani, Ratchaburi, Suphan Buri, Saraburi, Khon Kaen, Prachin Buri, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Nan and Phramongkutklao hospital Bangkok. The lead singer of Bodyslam rock band said earlier that he wanted to be the first person to run from the southernmost to the northernmost points of Thailand. It will be the longest run of his life and may be the last, he added. Last December, Toon has completed his 400-km charity marathon run on Saturday having raised 63 million baht in donations against his original target of 40 million baht for Bang Saphan district hospital in Prachuab Khiri Khan province. (TNA)