Let's support Richard Kiarie

In early December 2017, I got a call from Richard...or so I thought. It was his number, but on the other end of the phone was his lovely wife Renee. She told me that Richard was in the ICU  on life support. Long story short, I learned that Richard had been diagnosed with an auto-immune disease called Guillain Barre syndrome. I was like Guillian what?

When I got off the phone I called Kevin Muchai straight away and told him what Renee had told me, and we decided to go to the ICU to see Richard. When Kevin and I got to ICU, the seriousness of the condition kicked in when we saw Richard hooked up to every kind of machine imaginable, with machines breathing for him. At the time, their son Austin was about 7 months old.

"He can hear you, so if you ask a question he can respond by squeezing your hand. That's how I knew who he wants me to contact, I went through his contact list and asked him to squeeze my hand when I read out a name of someone he wanted me to contact." Renee explained. In my head, all I was wondering was how she was even functioning, with a new baby, her husband in ICU and minimal support.

Guillain-Barre syndrome is an auto-immune condition where the immune system attacks the nervous system, so signals to the nerves are impacted.  It has no cure and the result of this is that the brain can no longer tell the body to breathe, walk, talk or do anything else. 

Fast forward to present day and Richard is walking and talking and cracking jokes as usual. However, he has to undergo a lot of rehabilitation to strengthen his muscles which had been dormant for a while. In May of this year, Richard's employer told him they could no longer keep his job open, so he lost his job. At that time, he was in rehab and was on liquid food, and was starting to talk again.

Now although his recovery has been a miracle to witness, his young family is struggling financially and that's the reason I am reaching out to crowd source some financial help to see them through Richard's recovery. Renee works part time and Austin has to go to daycare, because Richard is not yet well enough to care for a (very active) little boy without possibly jeopardizing his recovery. The cost of living in Melbourne is no joke, let alone with a young family on one income. I'd ask that if you share this page, please respect the family's wishes as they do not wish for this to be shared openly on social media platforms.

If you are unable to contribute financially and want to offer alternative support, Richard is ok for you to reach out to him directly, his email address is [email redacted].

Much appreciation,

Dorcas