Good Morning Angels: R300 000 brain operation for a bright young lady

BACKGROUND: Melina Meletakos has her life ahead of her. She graduated with excellent marks, worked in Japan for some years and in February 2019 returned to South Africa, to be closer to her family. A few years ago Melina’s mom, Nikki wrote to Good Morning Angels on behalf of the family’s domestic helper, Elsie, who lost both her children in a shack fire. Now, it’s Melina’s family that needs assistance. Melina has been diagnosed with a brain tumour. She does not have a medical aid and she needs an urgent operation. They’ve asked Good Morning Angels to assist. 

REQUEST FOR: Melina Meletakos

REQUEST FROM: Thoula Bofilatos

ANGEL: Maria Pavli on behalf of LottoStar 

SPONSORING: LottoStar will assist Melina and her family with a donation of R 300 000,00 towards her life saving brain operation. 

ORIGINAL REQUEST: 

Good Morning Angels,   

Thank you so much for reading this mail - I cannot begin to express our gratitude for the fact that we can put Melina’s situation forward for consideration.  

I am writing on behalf of Melina Meletakos - a bright young lady who urgently needs a brain operation to remove a tumour.  The family does not have time to save or raise the funds needed - as she has to get the operation within the next few days.

A few years ago, Melina’s mom, Nikki contacted Good Morning Angels, on behalf of her domestic helper, Elsie, who is still with the family. Elsie's home burned down - killing both her children in it!!

Good Morning Angels assisted Elsie in this dreadful time.

My husband and Melina’s father have been friends forever. The first time I met Melina and her mom, Nikki was at Melina’s baptism - if I remember correctly, she was approximately 15 months old.

Melina graduated with excellent marks. She worked in Johannesburg for some years. She then decided to travel to Japan where she remained for the next few years. She had an awesome job working with a teaching academy there. She excelled as a teacher and soon became a programme coordinator. Melina will definitely fill you in with all the rest. 

She returned back to South Africa in February of this year. . . please refer and read her story on her Facebook page for the rest.

So far they saw a few doctors. The first was in Pretoria and he was very adamant that the surgery had to happen at once and said that the entire procedure would cost around R600 000,00 and that they needed to put down at least R300 000,00 down as a deposit.

The second doctor was in Johannesburg. He works at the Helen Joseph Hospital and this is where it was considered for her to have the surgery. They visited his rooms on Sunday morning, 1 December.  

On Monday morning, 2 December, they saw another doctor in Pretoria. He said the same as the previous doctors and also said that the basic costs of the hospital would be around R500 000,00, but this was without any complications or additional costs.

They have an appointment with a doctor who works at (I think) Helen Joseph, but also has a practice at the Donald Gordon Hospital.  

The last three doctors have offered their services completely, but as you are well aware, it is the scans, tests and the hospital that escalate the costs.

Please let me know if there is any other information that you need and I will try my best to find out for you. 

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Thoula Bofilatos