Doing this for our mother, after she has done so much for us.

---

Not so long ago, Adriana – Adri, to everyone who loves her – was the kind of person who showed up for others. A hard-working, compassionate estate agent in Cape Town, South Africa, she built a life of care, determination, and family, guided by her strong spiritual faith. She’s a loving mother and grandmother to 9 young kids. Adri has resolutely cared for her oldest daughter, Jo-Anne, who has an extremely rare genetic disorder resulting in mental disability, 9P translocation. Jo-Anne requires her own high level of daily care, including management of diabetes, and is part of this story too.

In 2021, Adri was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. She didn't flinch. She faced intense chemotherapy head-on and ultimately underwent a double mastectomy in 2022. Through every gruelling round of treatment, she remained a warrior, steadfast, brave, and full of fight. She managed to recover and start living fully again. With the medical bills adding up she needed to get to work.

We thought the worst was behind us.

In June 2024, Adri suffered a haemorrhagic stroke, one of the most serious and life-altering kinds. Survival was uncertain, let alone recovery. Watching her lying in the hospital in ICU, paralysed, unable to speak, with massive inflammation was incredibly hard to deal with.

Yet somehow, she came back.

Slowly, determinedly, she began to rebuild. Her speech was severely affected and her right side, her dominant side, was left paralysed, but her spirit remained strong.

Then came two further strokes in the year that followed, each one undoing progress she had fought so hard for. On the third stroke we thought we had lost her, as doctors said her condition was not improving in the ICU. Miraculously, a day later she started moving again. It took a week before she could speak. She fought for every small improvement.

Today, Adri is stable. She is making real, meaningful improvements in her speech and movement. She lights up around her grandchildren. She is still here, and she still has so much living to do.

But she can’t do it alone.

Adri needs full-time care. She needs ongoing medical support and help maintaining the home she has lived in for more than 20 years. Both her and Jo-Anne have depended on the family's strength and support through this difficult time.

A bit about Adri's life, courage, strength, and faith:

She’s always been the most optimistic and supportive mother, despite what life could throw at her. She lost her first child a few days after birth. In 2005 she lost her husband over the course of a single traumatic weekend, ultimately making the almost impossible decision to end life-support. Her eldest daughter has a very rare genetic condition, a translocation of chromosome 9p (9P+), requiring a lot of sacrifice and care. In between all this Adri has always thought of others. She made a defining choice in the early 90s to start an NGO to help those in disadvantaged communities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, build businesses with training and financial support. This initiative led her to being involved in starting over 650 small businesses, lifting many people out of poverty. She makes us so proud.

Adri is lucky enough to have a solid medical aid plan, but these medical setbacks proved too much. The debt has quickly added up, and continues to rise.

Her children have given everything – their time, their finances, their emotional reserves. They show up every single day, all while raising their own families. They are, quite simply, at their limit.

This is where you come in.

No contribution is too small. Every donation helps give Adri the dignity, and care she has more than earned. It helps a grandmother be present for the grandchildren she adores. It helps a family that has been quietly carrying an enormous weight finally breathe again.

Donations will cover the following costs:

Adri fought for her life. Now we're fighting for her quality of life.

Please donate. Please share. Every single act of kindness matters more than you know.

---

Written with love by Adri's children, Sean, Mari, Chris and Pete trying to support her and their sister.