John is 41 years old and has a 10 year old daughter. He is a security guard in a housing complex in South Africa. He developed a lump on his neck in July-August this year. He was unable to get an appointment at the state clinic or hospital and was in great discomfort. So, we took him to a GP who sent him for a blood test and a scan, and he was duly diagnosed with Hodgins Lymphoma. This was on 4 September.

Although the GP wrote him a referral letter, he was only able to get an appointment at a state hospital in November for a biopsy. Then they sent him home - with not even an aspirin for the pain - and told him to come back for the results in February.

It is now December and the swelling has spread to his shoulder and arm which is now paralysed. He is also struggling to walk and has no energy. The tragedy is that this is a cancer which has an over 80% cure rate if treated timeously. But it seems to be metastasizing and if we don't get the results of the biopsy, we don't know what treatment he needs.

We want to raise funds to send to him for him to get a biopsy at a private hospital in the hopes that he can be treated sooner as the waiting times for the state hospitals in South Africa are too long to treat his cancer in time.