Luzuko’s story has moved hundreds of people and meant that the young Eswatini toddler should be able to get life-saving radiation treatment very soon!
Johannesburg, South Africa (01 December 2020) – On Thursday the 26th of November, we shared the beautiful story of how a South African woman was working to raise funds to help Luzuko, a 2-year-old Eswatini toddler waiting for life-saving radiation.
At the time of publishing, the fund had raised R33,000.00 for Luzuko’s treatment and within 24-hours it has reached R97,000.00. That number has grown since and now the fund needs only raise R25,000.00 more and Luzuko can get his treatment at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital.
Little Luzuko has travelled all the way from the Kingdom of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, to get treatment for High-Risk Neuroblastoma. The two-year-old needs radiation therapy but because he isn’t a South African citizen, his family must pay for the treatment themselves.
Nadia Lewis, a South African with a passion for helping young cancer patients, heard about Luzuko’s story and decided to help the family raise the money needed to cover his treatment.
With the great success of Luzuko’s campaign, we wanted to know more about his case and how this young boy has been blessed by so many who care for his health and well-being.
Luzuko’s story starts in mid-march of 2020. He was at a Government hospital in Eswatini for his ailing health when his family received the news of his cancer diagnosis. The Rocking Horse Project, a children’s palliative care organisation in Eswatini, was called in to offer support to Luzuko’s mother Ntsiki.
A representative sat with Ntsiki and explained the process of the diagnosis. The Rocking Horse Project assisted in covering some of the test costs and started looking for funding to help with Luzuko’s treatment. Sadly, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, their funding was unsuccessful.
While they couldn’t help with the overall funding of Luzuko’s treatment, they provided the necessary emotional support to the family as well as care packs for Luzuko while he stayed in the hospital.
“I am a mother to a 2-year-old boy from Eswatini, when he was first diagnosed with cancer I was shocked, in denial and felt all alone then a lady from RHP came to talk to me she really helped accept and understand the situation we were in. We had to do further test, unfortunately, we couldn’t afford them at the time and once again RHP came through for me and my son, helped in paying the bill. They have been with us throughout this long tiring journey I will forever be thankful to them.” – Ntsiki
The organisation were overjoyed to receive the news that Luzuko had been transferred to South Africa and has since become the recipient of so many donations that will save his life. As his crowdfund for the radiation grows, so does the hope of all involved in his story.
Should you wish to support Luzuko in his final stretch of fundraising, you can do so via BackaBuddy here.
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