GMA: A 19 year-old fighting for her family
Rennies Travel and Avis Rent-a-Car donated R25 000,00 to the Van der Walt Family to help out with living necessities and unpaid bills like the municipal account, and rent, while caring for her brother Brandon and raising funds for his operation
GOOD MORNING ANGELS FESTIVE EDITION 9 DECEMBER 2015 (MONIQUE/AVIS&RENNIES)
19-year old Monique, pleading for help for her parents and desperately ill 7-year old brother
REQUEST FROM: Monique van der Walt
REQUEST FOR: 7-year old Brandon van der Walt and his parents
ANGEL: Anthony Greene, Rennies Travel FD, along with Avis Rent-a-car, our fabulous Festive Edition Sponsors
SPONSORING: Rennies Travel and Avis Rent-a-Car will donate R25 000,00 to the Van der Walt Family to help out with living necessities and unpaid bills like the municipal account, and rent, while caring for little Brandon and raising funds for his operation.
BACKGROUND: Monique is 19-years old and working her first real job after matriculating. She earns a small salary and instead of spending it on new clothes and things a young person is interested in, she is trying to keep her family's heads above water. Her parents are selling everything of value that they have to try to save the life of her little brother "bear" Brandon. He is 7-year old and needs a heart operation or transplant. He is very weak and its not clear if he would survive such an operation, even if they manage to the get R350 000,00 needed. The trip to Cape Town to get specialist advise and treatment cost the family R90 000,00. Some nights the slept in the car and didn't eat. Back home, Monique is worried that they will lose their home. They've not been able to pay utilities and live off very little food.
Monique along side Rian, Dianne and Anthony Greene from Rennies Travel.
ORIGINAL REQUEST:
Hi guys,
My name is Monique van der Walt, I am 19 years old and I am writing this on behalf of my 7 year old brother and my parents. My brother [Brandon is in Grade 1 in Constantia Park - I call him my little brother bear. He was born with borderline leukimia causing him to be severely underweight in comparison to children his age. We thought everything was fine until he started complaining of severe heart pain. He started passing out at school and started getting panic attacks. We took him to the doctor and they said that his one heart valve didn’t close properly at birth, causing him to lose a lot of his blood. He got a lot worse in the days to follow and we flew him to Cape Town to a Heart speasilist. All the scans and everything he had to do cost over R90 000.
There were nights in Cape Town that we had to sleep in the car and not eat in order to pay the doctors. They then established that his heart muscle is rapidly busy disintegrating, causing his heart to only work at about 50%. They said that it is a very complex case and that he might need a heart transplant, even when he does get a heart that matches, his little body may not accept the new heart.
This is an operation that could possibly cost us R350 000. As I'm typing this message, our family is busy losing everything. We are selling and losing everything we have, everything we own, we couldn’t pay our rent and electricity in 3 months so we might now not even have a roof over our heads at the end of the month. I am begging you to help my brother and my parents.
My mom is the founder of a Charity [Rainbow Children's Foundation] and she works with Care 2 be kind ,where they take care of and provide for over 160 people living in Sonskynhoekie. More than half of the residents of Sonskynhoekie is children under the age of 15. It is almost Christmas and we don’t even have money for a tree, or anything for my brother, right now we are living from canned food. I hate feeling this powerless. I try and do what I can to provide for my family. I work for a salary of R 6000 and with that I have to take care of 9 people for a month considering my dad is not getting paid. I am begging you to help my family. I am begging you to help my brother and to make the load lighter for my parents. I don’t need anything, but to see my parents and brother fine and healthy and taken care of. I am begging and pleading from the bottom of my heart that you guys will help my family. Please I am begging you guys.
With a broken heart,
Monique
Listen to what happened in studio below:
If you would like to help Monique and her family, or contact her, use the details below:
Cell: 074 771 2059
Email: [email protected]
Watch what happened in studio here: