Give Han Her Legs Back
Donation protected
I’d like to tell you a story. This story is a love story. It begins with a beautiful woman in restaurant, visiting Cape Town, South Africa for the first time.
This woman… she lights up the room wherever she is. Not just pretty, but friendly, funny, kind and direct (almost to the point of being rude, but that’s what Dutch women are like).
She walked into this restaurant in Cape Town and, unbeknown to her, changed her life that night forever.
She met a man in this restaurant and the neither of them could have known that this evening would be the end of life for them as they both, individually, knew it.
What started with a chance encounter and what grew over a two-and-a-half week holiday became something that had, some eight years later, had resulted in a 7-year marriage and a one-and-a-half year old son… all playing out 10,000km from where it had all begun.
But… as with everything in life, there is no good without bad. No up without down and no happy without sad.
5 years into this otherwise happy marriage, this beautiful, charming, loving and incredibly active young woman was struck with an awful affliction. An incurable, chronic affliction called Multiple Sclerosis (which is Latin for many scars or lesions, referring to scarring on the brain).
And so this love story went from being enviable to becoming a “Shew, darling, we are really lucky that wasn’t us!” story.
This affliction took hold of this woman and robbed her of most of her ability to help others (something that she so loved doing), it robbed her of her freedom and it robbed her of the ability to walk! And this thief… well there is nothing that can be done about him.
And so it’s been in and out of hospital since 2012… MRI scans, blood tests, urine tests, hospital stays, Intravenous Prednisone treatments and now finally something that works similarly to chemo! What a love story this has turned out to be…
Now, after the most recent and most severe of all of the “MS Attacks”, this woman is fighting a battle that has already raged for 5 weeks. She’s in a physical rehabilitation centre, after a 3 week hospital stay, trying to learn how to walk again. She made 10m the other day (30 feet roughly), and she walked 10 times slower than the average person… but she walked!
And now, focussing on the future, this woman has set her sights on getting back onto a bicycle (I mean, she’s Dutch). A traditional two-wheeler is probably never going to happen again, but being the cycling nation that Holland is, they have devised a very cool three-wheeled bike with an electric motor and special gearing so that even the less mobile can still cycle. The bike actually helps you to pedal, so that you’re still exercising, but without having to do all the work.
This woman, my wife, wants nothing more than to be able to take care of our son… carting him around and doing so whilst looking at least a little bit normal. And this great three-wheeler (called a ‘bakfiets’) is the best way to help this woman to look like a normal mommy.
So I’d like to appeal to you, the reader of this love story, to give this woman, this young mother, some of her freedom and her self-esteem back by donating something towards the €3,500 (nearly $4,000 as of today, 5 April 2016) that this wonderful bike costs.
Absolutely anything will be a great help… and even if you can’t donate anything yourself, please share this post with your friends. Who knows how many people out there might just have $5 to spare.
Use this link if you'd like to give Han anything!
http://www.dunstanmidlane.com/donate-for-hans-bike/
This woman… she lights up the room wherever she is. Not just pretty, but friendly, funny, kind and direct (almost to the point of being rude, but that’s what Dutch women are like).
She walked into this restaurant in Cape Town and, unbeknown to her, changed her life that night forever.
She met a man in this restaurant and the neither of them could have known that this evening would be the end of life for them as they both, individually, knew it.
What started with a chance encounter and what grew over a two-and-a-half week holiday became something that had, some eight years later, had resulted in a 7-year marriage and a one-and-a-half year old son… all playing out 10,000km from where it had all begun.
But… as with everything in life, there is no good without bad. No up without down and no happy without sad.
5 years into this otherwise happy marriage, this beautiful, charming, loving and incredibly active young woman was struck with an awful affliction. An incurable, chronic affliction called Multiple Sclerosis (which is Latin for many scars or lesions, referring to scarring on the brain).
And so this love story went from being enviable to becoming a “Shew, darling, we are really lucky that wasn’t us!” story.
This affliction took hold of this woman and robbed her of most of her ability to help others (something that she so loved doing), it robbed her of her freedom and it robbed her of the ability to walk! And this thief… well there is nothing that can be done about him.
And so it’s been in and out of hospital since 2012… MRI scans, blood tests, urine tests, hospital stays, Intravenous Prednisone treatments and now finally something that works similarly to chemo! What a love story this has turned out to be…
Now, after the most recent and most severe of all of the “MS Attacks”, this woman is fighting a battle that has already raged for 5 weeks. She’s in a physical rehabilitation centre, after a 3 week hospital stay, trying to learn how to walk again. She made 10m the other day (30 feet roughly), and she walked 10 times slower than the average person… but she walked!
And now, focussing on the future, this woman has set her sights on getting back onto a bicycle (I mean, she’s Dutch). A traditional two-wheeler is probably never going to happen again, but being the cycling nation that Holland is, they have devised a very cool three-wheeled bike with an electric motor and special gearing so that even the less mobile can still cycle. The bike actually helps you to pedal, so that you’re still exercising, but without having to do all the work.
This woman, my wife, wants nothing more than to be able to take care of our son… carting him around and doing so whilst looking at least a little bit normal. And this great three-wheeler (called a ‘bakfiets’) is the best way to help this woman to look like a normal mommy.
So I’d like to appeal to you, the reader of this love story, to give this woman, this young mother, some of her freedom and her self-esteem back by donating something towards the €3,500 (nearly $4,000 as of today, 5 April 2016) that this wonderful bike costs.
Absolutely anything will be a great help… and even if you can’t donate anything yourself, please share this post with your friends. Who knows how many people out there might just have $5 to spare.
Use this link if you'd like to give Han anything!
http://www.dunstanmidlane.com/donate-for-hans-bike/
Organizer
Dunstan Beresford Midlane
Organizer
Eindhoven, NL
