UAE expat scales Jebel Jais 7 times to help blind women

Sharjah - The 42-year-old Sharjah resident covered a distance of nearly 9,000 metres, surpassing the height of Mt Everest above sea level.

On Australia Day on Tuesday, expat Scott Melgaard did something ‘unusual’. He biked up and down Jebel Jais mountains — seven times in 33 hours, all for a noble cause. He wanted to give sight to hundreds of blind women in developing countries.

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With such an incredible feat, the 42-year-old Sharjah resident covered a distance of nearly 9,000 metres, surpassing the height of Mt Everest above sea level. He was able to raise Dh27,000 for an Australian charity, the Fred Hollows Foundation, which will use the fund to help restore the sight of almost 300 women.

A science teacher at Victoria International School of Sharjah, Melgaard became the face of his school as he personally took up the fundraising campaign for Australia Day. He started the challenging ride at around 1pm in the afternoon and finished it the next day at 9.45pm.

Melgaard said his school regularly ties up with the charity every year for fund-raising. However, the campus had been facing issues this year because of the pandemic, so he stepped forward and embarked on the extreme adventure.

“I decided to do something unusual to mark Australia Day, as we are living in unusual times because of the pandemic crises. One of the major push behind this project was living and working with people of so many nationalities,” Melgaard said.