Reef is 8-months old. Around 3 - 4 months ago, the family were shocked to learn (from a routine paediatric visit) that Reef had been diagnosed with leukaemia. Lydia (Reef’s mom) felt like her whole world had been completed and utterly shattered. He was diagnosed on the Friday and that weekend the entire family maintained a vigil at the Donald Gordon Centre in Parktown. Lydia had never shed so many tears or offered up so many prayers. That same weekend Reef commenced chemo therapy to try and get this insidious disease under control. One evening his kidneys started to fail!

At that point they thought the end had arrived as they rushed Reef to the Morningside Clinic for admission to the neo-natal ICU and dialysis. Unsure of what was going on and despite his illness and pain – HE JUST SMILED!!! Somehow he survived that weekend and since then he has been receiving ongoing chemo therapy; the cancer that he has appears to be pretty resilient in the face of his treatment and is also pretty aggressive. The family have been through many ups and downs over the last few months, including Reef suffering from a seizure that the doctors battled for hours to bring under control. He has undergone countless bone marrow biopsies, chemo treatments, infections. Yet through all of this he has continued to grow, develop and best of all, smile! Lydia (in the past) ran her own business and worked full-time.

She has had no choice but to pack up her life and focus on loving, nursing, supporting and just being with Reef. She has given up her house and her job in order to live with Reef at the Donald Gordon Centre. A short time ago the family were informed that he had essentially gone into remission. This called for a huge celebration however, the celebration were short-lived. The doctors panel at Donald Gordon informed Lydia and Ryan (Reef’s dad) on June 4 that the best option for Reef’s continued survival would be a bone marrow transplant. This would have to be done at the end of his final session of “Code Blue” chemo. In a month’s time, Reef must undergo a bone marrow transplant in order for him to have the best chance of survival. Lydia spoke to her medical-aid provider who indicated that they would cover the costs of the transplant, but not the search for a donor match. They have since found out that the cost of having the testing done to find a match is around R75,000 (if they can find a match in South Africa).

Lydia and Ryan had already started the process of setting up a trust fund for Reef in order to raise funds; however the dire situation, with the horribly short time constraints, don’t allow for all of the processes that need to be completed to be finished before he needs the transplant. So, as a family they have started doing all that they can to raise the funds to conduct a full and detailed search for a bone marrow donor for Baby Reef. It is with this need that Lydia, Ryan and their entire family asked for 702’s Birthday Wish for help. The Dischem Foundation has donoted R75 000 to help find a suitable bone marrow donor.

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