Luc Janssens is raising money for Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary (UK).

Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary (UK) Wing Walk Team take to the skies 23rd July 2026.

Care for Wild is a rhino sanctuary on the outskirts of Mbombela. They do fantastic work rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing rhinos as well as in anti-poaching and conservation.

When an English stranger approaches you in an outdoor shop in Wales, and asks if you'd be willing to get strapped to the outside of a plane to raise money for a Rhino sanctuary in South Africa, what do you say?

"Sign me up bru!"

A charity wing walk for Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary - 23 July 2026

1.  The Charity – Care for Wild

Care for Wild is the largest orphan-rhino sanctuary in the world. It was founded in 2011 by Petronel Nieuwoudt and sits within the greater Barberton Nature Reserve in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The exact location is kept confidential for security reasons, and the sanctuary operates under a formal agreement with South African National Parks (SANParks).

Its work follows a clear arc: rescue, rehabilitate, rewild, release. When a rhino is killed by poachers, any calf left behind is often too young to survive alone – helpless, traumatised and, in many cases, injured. Care for Wild takes in these orphans, many rescued from the neighbouring Kruger National Park, and raises them until they can be returned to protected wilderness.

A few points that tend to bring the scale of it home for readers:

The sanctuary has cared for more than 100 rhinos, including over 20 admitted with serious injuries, with the first calves born on site from 2022 onwards.

The youngest calves are bottle-fed around the clock, every two hours, taking up to 16 litres of milk a day, in a purpose-built intensive-care unit.

The rhinos are protected by a substantial anti-poaching operation – including a mounted horse unit, a K9 dog unit and AI-enabled tracking technology – and the main sanctuary has now gone thousands of consecutive days without a poaching incursion.

Beyond the animals themselves, Care for Wild invests in local education, employment and community projects, on the principle that lasting protection means giving people alternatives to poaching.

2.  The Activity – Wing Walking

A wing walk means being securely harnessed to a frame above the top wing of a biplane and flying in the open air while the aircraft performs a routine below and around you. It is one of the more extreme fundraising challenges available in the UK.

The flight is run by AeroSuperBatics, the world’s only formation wing-walking team, based at RFC Rendcomb near Cirencester – a private airfield that began life as a Royal Flying Corps training base in the First World War, in the heart of the Cotswolds. Useful context on the operator and the aircraft:

AeroSuperBatics has been performing since 1984, holds Guinness World Records, has flown in more than 20 countries and thrilled over six million spectators in the UK alone – with a 100% safety record built over four decades.

The aircraft are restored 1940s Boeing Stearman Model 75 biplanes in trademark orange and black, re-engined with 450-horsepower radial engines – powerful enough to carry a person standing on the wing.

On the day, Luc will fly through a series of fly-pasts, zoom climbs, steep dives and banking turns at speeds of up to around 120mph.

The team is well used to charity flights and can provide footage of the experience to support a fundraising campaign. Flights are weather-dependent and may be rescheduled if conditions are unsuitable.

3.  The Person – Luc Janssens

Luc Janssens is a South African living in London, where he is a Director of Mercantile Accounting, a firm working with founders and small businesses. He is closely involved in the South African community in the UK – he sits on the Young Professionals Committee of the South African Chamber of Commerce (SACC), and is a trustee and treasurer of GAGA UK, a charity that funds education projects in Southern Africa. Away from work he is an endurance-sport enthusiast, so a physical challenge is well within character.

As Luc tells the origin story, the whole thing began when an English stranger approached him in an outdoor shop in Wales and asked whether he’d be willing to be strapped to the outside of an aeroplane to raise money for a rhino sanctuary back home. His answer was immediate: “Sign me up.” He has described the wing walk itself, cheerfully, as “something a bit ridiculous” – which is part of the appeal.

4.  Why it matters and the South Africa connection

Rhino poaching remains one of South Africa’s most persistent conservation crises, driven by organised crime and demand for rhino horn abroad. The pressure is measurable, current, and – for this story – strikingly local to the sanctuary:

352 rhinos were poached in South Africa in 2025. That was a 16% fall on the year before (420 in 2024) – real progress, but still roughly one rhino killed every 15 hours across the continent.

Mpumalanga – the province Care for Wild calls home – was the hardest-hit of all in 2025, losing 178 rhinos, nearly double the previous year. Poaching in the adjacent Kruger National Park almost doubled to 175. The threat is quite literally on the sanctuary’s doorstep.

More than 12,000 rhinos have been lost to poaching in Africa since the current crisis began in 2008.

The human angle is what ties it together. Here is a South African, thousands of miles from home in London, choosing to do something frightening and public to raise money for a cause on the other side of the world – one that is under acute pressure in the very province he comes from. It fits a wider pattern of the South African diaspora in the UK finding ways to keep supporting home, which is also reflected in Luc’s community and charity work here. For a UK audience there is the Cotswolds spectacle and the daredevil hook; for a South African audience there is a story about staying connected to home and giving back to it. Both point to the same simple end: funding that reaches the people and animals on the ground.

What donations actually pay for is concrete and easy to picture – veterinary care and milk for orphaned calves, 24-hour anti-poaching protection, and the education and community programmes that address why poaching happens in the first place. Small amounts add up quickly against costs like these.

5.  Practical Details

Event

Charity wing walk on a 1940s Boeing Stearman biplane, over the Cotswolds, on 23 July 2026 (weather permitting), with AeroSuperBatics at RFC Rendcomb, Cirencester (GL7 7DF).

How to donate

JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/page/antonio-care-for-wild

Gift Aid: for UK taxpayers giving personally, the charity reclaims an extra 25% at no cost to the donor – a £100 gift becomes £125.

Company donations can usually be treated as an allowable expense for corporation tax.

Contact & assets

Luc Janssens – Director, Mercantile Accounting

[linkedin.com/in/lajanssens]

Photographs and video of the wing walk available on request, before and after the flight.

Interview with Luc available in the run-up to, and immediately after, the 23 July flight.

Reference links

Care for Wild – careforwild.co.za

AeroSuperBatics – aerosuperbatics.com

Wing-walk experience – gowingwalking.com

https://careforwild.co.za/about-us/our-vision-and-mission/

We wish Luc and Team all the best for this incredible venture to save Rhinos!