ABOUT US
Watch me rise was founded in 2016 by Gareth Kropman and Daniel van der Merwe after they decided to branch away from their long time career in IT and focus on a more worthwhile cause to help people fulfill their truest potential and to not only live their full length of life but live the width of it as well. Although this movement has existed for many years as merely a concept within their mind's eye, filling spare time here and there, they are now ready to concentrate this vision into developing a platform that utilizes their joy and passion of helping, leading, and motivating others into a global movement to help raise awareness around mental health and developing the best version of oneself.
DJ RUN
DJ Run started officially in 2018 as a mental health awareness campaign to raise awareness for mental health and suicide prevention. It was initially started by Braden Murphy and Ryan Theron in 2017. They chose to run for their friend’s birthday, the age he would be on this planet. He would’ve been 28 and so they thought: “Let's go and do a 28 kilometer run”… and they did it!
I thought it was beautiful and an absolutely amazing idea. I really enjoyed the concept and asked in 2018: “Are you guys happy for me to try and run with this?”. Bearing in mind, my brother was not an energizer bunny, at all! I could just imagine him sitting up there having a beer and looking at us and going, “What are you guys doing?!” But you know what? 2018 came around, we put the message out there and we had quite a few followers coming and joining us.
And year on year it’s grown. It's been amazing to see how people get together, not just to run, but also to help out. It's really, really amazing to see it come together. This year, we're taking it online and taking it virtual because of the pandemic. The core behind DJ Run is fitness. Because with a healthy body comes a healthy mind.
All exercises are included. Anything that will help to get the endorphins up, getting the brain into a positive state. Endorphins are fantastic to get you into a positive mindset. And a positive mindset means everything in life.
Join us, join the cause, and join the fight to raise mental health awareness. Let’s prevent suicide.
DJ Run 2020, see you there.

