This holiday season, St Joseph’s Intermediate Paediatric Care is launching its Christmas Wish Campaign and are calling on the public to help make a difference.
Located in Montana, St Joseph’s is a non-profit organisation that provides a caring environment where chronically-ill children from vulnerable communities receive crucial medical and therapeutic support, allowing them to heal, grow, and develop with dignity.
Lesley Liddle, Head of Business Development, says they treat kids up to 18 years old who are referred to St Joseph’s via public hospitals and community clinics.
Liddle explains: “As South Africa’s largest non-profit provider of intermediate paediatric care, St. Joseph's relies on donor support to sustain the essential services we offer our young patients.
“Children stay with us for six months to over a year, depending on the severity of their illness.
“Every aspect of their recovery - meals, clothing, nursing, therapeutic care, and transportation to regular check-ups - is covered during their stay.”
Just last year, little Duanne Parson, 11, from Eerste River was diagnosed with spastic paraplegia and stunted growth due to TB of the spine.
On admission to St Joseph’s on 17 October 2023, he could barely walk 20 steps and his initial days were filled with difficulty as he was dependent on the medical staff while learning to adjust to a Halo pelvic frame, taking TB medication, had a poor appetite and was not gaining weight.
After months of rehabilitation, Duanne underwent successful spinal surgery and returned to St. Joseph’s in August, frame-free and walking on his own.
Duanne’s grateful ouma and guardian, Fransina Parring, says: ”Duanne is getting stronger by the day and is very happy to be home.
“His eating is progressing bit by bit. He is in school and trying to cope with a full day at school, for all the obvious reasons he is struggling to catch up with the work.”
She expressed her heartfelt thanks to St Joseph’s, as she never expected him to recover so well.
You can join the St Joseph’s Christmas Wish Campaign by donating as little as R100, to ensure that a healing child gets a nutritious meal for a week.
To donate visit https://stjosephsipc.org.za/donation-page/
marsha.dean@inl.co.za