Help for Hannah's Hope

My name is Phillippa, and together with 2 of my sisters, Kathi and Melissa, we are appealing for financial assistance for Hannah Blok, our 25-year-old niece, who has suddenly and overwhelmingly had to become the very strongest version of herself, while living through the very worst of times in her young life.

Hannah … an exquisitely fey, achingly soulful, heartbreakingly wise, extremely sensitive, and intensely private young woman. Through none of her own doing, she has seen far too much and been through so much hurt, loss and devastation in her short lifetime already.

Yet Hannah has survived and risen above so much of her story. Her remarkable resilience and inner strength have seen her through such tough times, before putting herself through college for her high school pass grades to where she is now, fulfilling her dream as she completes her final year film studies in Cape Town. She fights every single day to still stand tall and rallies for women’s rights, all the while living within the depths of our familial mental health challenges.

With an absent mother, the only constant in her life was her loving dad. A father she absolutely adored with all her soul, as he did her.

Until mid-last year when the devastatingly unthinkable happened.

Admitted to hospital for a suspected stroke at the young age of 55, doctors found Hannah’s dad to be riddled with Brain Melanoma cancer. Extremely aggressive, by the time it was discovered it had already spread from his brain to his lungs, his bowels, his liver, his shoulders.

Not only did Hannah sit with her dad every day in desperate hope of a miracle, flailing herself in such awful shock, she was also in the middle of writing her end-of-year exams, while simultaneously helping her stepmother care for her 3 very young half-sisters. It was a truly horrific, agonising and traumatic time, just beyond any words.

Then, on the 27th November 2024, Hannah’s whole world heartbreakingly changed forever. Her dad, once our much-loved brother-in-law, tragically passed away.

As incomprehensible as it sounds, things are now even worse for Hannah as there is no income of any kind. Her dad was her sole financial support while she studied, and equally devastatingly, since his passing she has been cut off from her precious half-sisters.

Left with just us, her 3 aunts, for financial and emotional support, love and family, we desperately need your help for Hannah please. With 1 of us retired, 1 medically unable to work, and 1 a carer, the looming point of no return has just arrived.

While she has absolutely incredibly exceled at university and been invited to do her honours next year, we have to focus on the immediate needs to get her through the rest of this year.

It really is Hannah’s turn now, she needs her village. She needs all the love and help around her that she can get. She needs the chance to live what she fights for every day.

Any and all donations for Hannah’s Hope, no matter how big or small, will be so gratefully appreciated as we try to navigate this devastating and unknown path with her as best we can.

Thank you, so very much.