Wonderful Family in Desperate Need

This is the Brooks family, my family in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.  On top left Charmaine, to the right her father James and bottom left Jen and Charmaines daughter Kayla.  Through my life I've known them to be the most humble, down to earth, and welcoming people I have ever known.  Big caring hearts, good people of faith.  Hard working and proud.  They always provided a warm, loving home to their children.  I’ve never heard any of them utter a foul word about anyone and always willing to help anyone they can to the best of their ability.  They never asked for anything from anyone and are now too proud to ask for assistance.  Not because they have been lazy...  my uncle worked for 30 years at Nestle before forced into retirement with a pension barely enough to cover their basic needs.  And my cousin Charmaine has worked at the South African post office for more than 20 years, but married an abusive husband who walked away with half her pension.  My own family has been helping out with their financial difficulties for years, but now their needs have increased significantly.

So why am I appealing for assistance?

My aunt Jen has been plagued with health problems throughout her life and recently hospitalized for an unknown condition that may be life threatening.  If that isn't enough my cousin Charmaine was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer.  Doctors are currently unable to operate as they believe there is cancer around the breast that needs to be cleared before they are able to operate.  I have just been through this recently after losing my best friend to cancer.  My uncle James recently lost his brother to brain cancer.  So I know what is in store for this family in the coming months.  The most horrible fate has just befallen this wonderful family and I know how much they suffer even though they try to put on a brave face.

The situation is that my cousin doesn't drive, nor does my aunt.  For years my poor uncle has been running and fetching, doing and taking for all of them happily, without complaint.  Throughout Kayla’s high school every day he took her, fetched her, to school, to sports practice, whatever she needed, grocery shopping for her and her mom, to medical appointments and so forth.  They have always put their children before themselves, often barely scraping by.

I would love to be able to raise some funds to assist in getting Kayla a car so that she can begin to help with the running and fetching that is going to increase significantly in the coming months and possibly years.  To help alleviate some of the pressure on my uncle and on all of them.  I also want to be able to assist in providing some relief from their rising medical bills as Charmaine goes through expensive cancer treatment.

Please open your hearts to this amazing family.  A US Dollar goes a long way in South Africa because of currency rates.

Thank you so much...