Gifting hope to children with cancer!

CHOC deeply values the support received through the GlobalGiving, which plays a crucial role in assisting children and teens battling cancer and life-threatening blood disorders, enabling effective treatment and early detection.

Your invaluable support has impacted on our beneficiaries through nutritional and transportational support:

As a CHOC Social Worker, every day is different – a different set of challenges, smiles and pain in the eyes of the children we serve and parents/carers. Ours is not a job but a calling and to serve children with cancer and their families is an honor! Our days often start with a heartbreaking moment on diagnosis and built with smiles as we walk through a lengthy journey with the family. I will never forget the single mother to seven children with the left side of the body not properly functioning due to a stroke. The frown on her face spoke a thousand words and I pondered by this look. Her childs chemotherapy went well with them being discharged to return in the next month. The Paediatric Oncologist also noticed the sorrow and fear on her face and called on me. I was filling whilst another CHOC Social Worker was on leave. Walking to the mother I noticed the tears in her eyes only to find out she could not find the regular CHOC Social Worker on duty. CHOC always provided her with the transportation, refreshments and food parcels and now she was unsure of how they would get home and feed her family. The tears disappeared as I removed my jacket, and she saw the CHOC logo on my scrubs. She smiled on receiving their transport money and food parcel, sharing her children will eat until whole heartedly until they receive the next food parcel.

In doing the ward rounds, i was taken aback as it is normally mom or grandmom who attends treatment with the child. I walked over to the childs bed and learnt that dad had to take over hospital check-ups as mom recently passed on. He knew of his childs diagnosis and would do anything to get his child to treatment. In trying to bridge the gap of mother, father, carer and provider to the family he forgot his childs blood results. He couldn’t afford to travel back and forth and relieved when he received transport money. He mentioned this will ease his worry every time he has to come as he would sometimes think of skipping to use the money on groceries and household costs. More importantly he wanted to settle the children’s school fees so they could get a better education and live good lives.

I live and breathe to serve children with cancer and hope that someday i see every child diagnosed with cancer at an early stage and a cancer free world.

Roslyn Raphotle, CHOC Social Worker

Over the period, June - September 2024 CHOC provided

- 8,728 bednights to beneficiaries,

- gifted R316,666 in transport financial assistance,

- gifted 73 disbursements in bereavment support,

- gifted 73 food parcels and 41 food vouchers,

- served 26,184 nutritional meals at our houses,

- gifted 167 Carebags.

- 167 new diagnosis and we sadly lost 72 children to cancer.

CHOC has been a cornerstone of support for young cancer patients and their families across South Africa, offering comprehensive care and a robust support system.

Yours in Hope,

Nirupa Kasserchun

National Fundraiser