From Centurion to every corner of South Africa, one mother’s plea is echoing loudly: help my daughter breathe again. This is Milly’s story of strength, survival and hope!
Johannesburg, South Africa (08 May 2025) – There are moments when life demands more than strength. It asks for miracles. And right now, in a quiet hospital room at Netcare Milpark, one family is asking South Africa to help make one happen.
Wilma Naude is a mother. She’s a warrior on the frontlines of a fight no parent ever wants to face, the fight to save her daughter’s life. Her 36-year-old daughter, Melissa (fondly known as Milly), is facing a terrifying reality. Her lungs are operating at just 17%. And unless she receives a life-saving double lung transplant, she may not survive.
But there’s a catch. According to the mom, despite a donor potentially being available, the operation is being delayed. They’re still waiting on medical aid authorisation. Red tape in a race where every second counts.
And so, the family has turned to the nation. To you. To all of us.
Milly was born with Pulmonary Ciliary Dyskinesia, an incredibly rare genetic condition that affects the lungs’ ability to clear bacteria and mucus. It’s the kind of diagnosis that rewrites futures before they even begin. For Milly, it’s meant a life of hospitals, surgeries, and a dependency on oxygen that has robbed her of so much — but never her will to live.
Her list of procedures reads like something out of a medical journal: 11 sets of grommets. A lifetime of blood tests. Six ICU stays… in just one year. Round-the-clock oxygen. Daily inhaled antibiotics. Total physical isolation to protect her from infection.
And still, she fights.
The transplant offers hope. But even hope comes with complications.
The operation must be performed under tight conditions: Milly must survive 90 days post-transplant and prove a medical likelihood of surviving at least five more years. It’s a high-stakes, high-risk procedure but it’s her only shot.
Her mother explains that the medical aid situation is making it harder. “Her funder, SizweHosmed, is under administration and the authorisation required for the transplant is still pending. Legal channels have been activated, but time is running out.”
To speed things up, the family has launched a crowdfunding campaign. A last-ditch effort to raise the R2 million needed to cover the transplant and post-op care. Every hour matters. Every contribution counts.
Milly is not just a patient or a case study. She’s a daughter, a sister, a friend. Someone who has lived with strength most of us can’t fathom and who has done it all with grace, quietly, far from the limelight. Her story isn’t just about lungs. It’s about courage. It’s about how much a human life is worth. It’s about a mom, watching her child suffocate, refusing to give up.
“I am pleading with you – please help me save my child’s life,” Wilma says.
“Every donation is a chance to keep her alive. Every breath she takes is a miracle.”
South Africans have always shown up when it matters. We’ve rallied behind families, strangers and friends alike. And right now, Milly needs us.
You can read more about Milly’s story or support the crowdfund here.
*At the time of publishing, the Crowdfund amounted to R8,300, that number has since increased to R44,085.
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