Dear Board of Trustees and Dear Donors,
It is time to pause to finally bring a long-cherished wish onto our paper that smells of love, hope and trust. We, that is our whole family, would like to express our huge thanks to ALL of you and also convey our clear insight that, in this form, we would not exist without your immensely important help.
It was like a bad awakening from a sweet dream, our daughter Sheiry, who in our eyes was very healthy, was just 14 months old when she had a severe epilepsy out of the blue. Already 6 years later, the fact that she was even allowed to survive this shows us that our God, always present in our lives, had chosen a very special path for our daughter.
he reason for this strong epileptic seizure was devastating, a brain tumor had formed between the lifeblood that runs between the right and left cerebellar hemispheres, which necessitated 3 difficult brain operations. But unfortunately not enough, because this astrocytoma, which, due to the life-threatening situation, could not be completely operated out, from then on repeatedly sent cysts into the two cerebellar hemispheres, which were filled with a very viscous cerebrospinal fluid, which resulted in countless operations to puncture them with tiny catheters (shunts) so that they could empty themselves. Without these interventions, Sheiry would not have survived the resulting brain overpressure. These situations arose due to the limited space available for the cerebellum, which caused these cysts (sometimes up to 4 at the same time) to press against the brain wall, which caused many complicated side effects, such as loss of balance or severe eye squint. We were actually told that no children had survived more than 8 such operations, but ALL OF US were proved wrong!
Because in the meantime Sheiry had to endure over 30 such interventions in almost 6 years. If you also know that there were at least 2 MRIs each time, as well as many computer tomographies, all of which were connected with general anesthesia, our warrior, there is no better word (!), had endured over 70 of them already.
Well, what triggered all of these emotions, hopes, disappointments, crashes and cries for help in our family would fill a big book …
We have seen a social, financial and social decline, we only managed to do it because we got help.
Now we have also found a foundation that, thanks to you, dear donors, could also help us financially, so that in addition to social welfare, which probably covers everything necessary for life, there are of course no opportunities to go out for a meal or to the cinema or to go on a boat trip, let alone enjoy a week’s holiday …, something extraordinary can be experienced!
But we stay strong, if only because we owe it to our Sheiry, because she always sweeps us away with her irrepressible will to live, she shows us that giving up is not an option and that only God will tell us exactly when we will will get a new, different life, because HE alone knows why and how long we have been around!
Our struggle continues and therefore our heartfelt thanks to ALL of you!
With our dearest greetings and best health wishes
Patrice, Kenya, SHEIRY, Shelby and Jade