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Cape Town Marathon

We are thrilled to announce that CKF will once again be an official charity partner of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon in 2027! Six racers will represent CKF and our mission of organ, eye, and tissue donation, and have the chance to receive an Abbott World Marathon Major Star!

If you are interested in racing with us in 2027, please email us at info@chrisklugfoundation.org to be placed on the interest list.

Meet our 2026 racers below.

Logo of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, with a stylized mountain and flame design, and text stating 'Official Charity Partner' on the left.

Sunday, May 23, 2027

Sponsor Our CKF Run Team!

There are opportunities to sponsor our CKF Run Team at the Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Community Levels. Click the button below to learn about sponsorships.

Meet the 2026 Team

  • Father and daughter smiling in front of CKF banner, wearing aprons with detachable plush organs

    Jessi Rochel

    Jessi is on a mission to complete the Abbott World Marathon Majors! She has completed NYC, Berlin, Sydney, and Chicago.

    Jessi has been a registered organ donor since her teens, is a member of the bone marrow and blood stem cell registry with NMDP, and one of her favorite things to do is to donate blood. She has also been the Executive Director of the Chris Klug Foundation since October 2022.

    Organ donation is quite literally close to her heart as her father received a life-saving heart transplant in 2015. In addition to honoring donors and transplant recipients through her racing and work, she is here to represent the caregivers, too, including her mom, who are also heroes in the community.

    In her free time, Jessi loves to spend time with her rescue kitty, Bergi. She also enjoys reading, comfort rewatching her favorites TV series and movies, most all things athletic, and traveling. She is a runner, biker, swimmer, skier, hiker, and racer (participant, not competitor).

    This will be her third time as a member of the CKF Run Team!

  • Woman running in a marathon, smiling, wearing sunglasses, a blue tank top with a community message, black shorts, and a race bib numbered 86744.

    Teagan Walter

    Teagan is a living donor who donated her kidney to a stranger in 2021.

    Post-donation, Teagan started running for three reasons. She was inspired by the donation process and seeing what her body was capable of. She also wanted to answer the question she kept getting of "can you live a normal life with one kidney?" And she wanted to raise money and awareness for organizations that are making a difference in improving outcomes for people with kidney disease.

    Despite believing pre-donation that she would never be able to run any sort of race, she ran her first marathon in 2024, fundraising for the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois. She also ran a 200-mile relay race that same year, on a team comprised entirely of kidney donors and recipients, to raise awareness about kidney donation.

    In 2025, Teagan ran both the Berlin and New York marathons with the CKF team, excited to support an organization that she has a personal connection with. Having grown up in Aspen, CO, she followed Chris Klug's journey through organ transplantation while she lived there.

Thank you to our 2026 Sponsors!

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