Kaitlin

Dear friends,

As a lot of you know, Kaitlin has been struggling with her health for the past 4 years. It's a bit of a long story but I'm going to try my best to summarise it. Kaitlin started struggling with ear infections and hearing loss from an early age. It took years before she was finally diagnosed with cholesteatoma in both her ears. When she finally had the first surgery to remove the growths, she had been on antibiotics for a full year. By that point it impacted her immune system significantly. She started getting extreme sensitivity to medications to the point where it affected her mental health. Going into this we believed that there would be a simple surgery on each ear and then her eardrums could be reconstructed and she would be able to lead a normal life. That was however, not the case. Four surgeries later the growths kept coming back at a fast speed until they finally had to remove both her ear canals, bringing her up to 6 surgeries in less than 4 years. The chronic medications she was put on affected her mentally and physically. Wait times in Canada for getting treatment became our biggest enemy as she had to suffer for long periods of time without getting help for all the issues that arose. Out of desperation I made the decision to bring her back to South Africa to get help for her. She relies on chronic medications, constant specialist visits and hearing aids to function. She needs cochlear implants to reduce the moisture buildup in her ears that cause constant infections, as well as proper treatment for her mental health struggles. We have found wonderful treatment options but unfortunately it comes at a price. Medical expenses is a large financial burden on our little family and I just can't keep up anymore.

Kaitlin is an incredibly beautiful soul, who wishes for nothing more than to just get better so she can finally start a life of her own. There is nothing harder in life than watching your child suffer and not being able to help them.

So now I come to you, our friends to ask for help, so I can attempt to give my daughter her life back. I know it's a lot to ask, but any help would be appreciated.

Those who know us, know that asking help is a very difficult thing for me to do. But watching my child suffer has been a lot harder.

Love and blessings to you all

Elize