Casual Day theme inspires support to courageous young patient

GEORGE NEWS - The theme for Casual Day 2021, Courage and Kindness, sparked a George company into action, offering to sponsor the transport costs of a young patient who needs to visit the hospital twice a week for treatment.

According to Basil Myners, one of the partners of the project consultancy company Rock Solid, they have been looking for a project or a person who could benefit from support.

“The moment we heard about young Tyresse Michaels (4) from Pacaltsdorp who suffers from severe haemophilia A and has to travel with his dad to the George Hospital for infusions twice a week, we knew this was it. There is enough strain on a family with a child with a chronic condition; they hardly need to absorb travel costs as well,” said Myners. “Tyresse is the one showing courage, so we want to reflect the Casual Day theme by showing kindness.”

Rock Solid has offered to cover Tyresse and his dad’s cost of travelling to the hospital and back on the Go George bus service, twice a week, for the next year.

“Actually, it’s our staff and a number of our consultants who bought into the idea and have donated money towards Tyresse’s travel costs,” said Diane Jonker, co-partner of Rock Solid.

“We don’t want credit for this - we want to inspire other companies to find out how they can make life easier for people from our community who have to deal with chronic disease and the expenses flowing from that.”

According to Dr Johan le Grange, the physician treating Tyresse at the paediatric department of the hospital, the boy will need the regular infusions of the blood factor 8 that is missing from his blood for the rest of his life.

“However, these are not the only times we see him. This year alone, he’s been admitted to hospital 13 times for bleeding from minor incidents - sometimes the only indication of bleeding is pain or swelling. We then admit him for two days to infuse him with factor 8 twice a day. He is such a champion and goes through the procedures with great courage, especially after we fitted a [permanent] device through which the infusion is administered.”

Rock Solid is challenging other local businesses to become involved in alleviating the burden of families with children who need to receive regular treatment for chronic diseases.