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Mater Heart Run, a 10-kilometre run to raise funds for children in need of heart surgeries, kicked off at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on Saturday (May 26th) and drew an estimated 43,000 participants, Kenya's Capital FM, who helped sponsor the event, reported.

The run had a fundraising goal of 35 million shillings (US$411,000), which will cover the cost of surgeries for nearly 250 needy children.

"I have never run here in Nairobi and now when they announced this event, I came and hope that it will make a big difference in the lives of the children affected by a heart defect," Timothy Mwai said.

"I saw one of the children affected by a heart defect and it really affected me," said Peter Kiplagat, who participated in the run for the past seven years. "This moved me to try as hard as possible to participate in the run every year."

The programme seeks donations from corporate organisations and participations from schools and the public.

Surgical operations in Kenya are expensive, with each surgery costing around 500,000 ($5,875) to 600,000 shillings ($7,000), according to Capital FM.