Levinia Jones needs our help, love and support.

Our most loved and beautiful daughter, sister, niece, cousin and phenomenal friend Levinia needs our support.

Levinia was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of November 2023. She is 41 years old with a 4-year-old son and a most wonderful and dedicated husband, Nathan.

She has NO medical coverage as she has fallen through the gaps of the Canadian health system, which is terrifying and incredibly stressful.

She is facing some big and challenging days ahead, and while she is feeling strong and ready to do what it takes to heal, she needs our love, care and financial support.

Levinia and her son arrived in Montreal, Canada, in May to join Nathan, who is studying here. They aimed to apply for a post-student work visa in 2024 and then start their application for permanent residency as all her immediate family lives in Montreal.

When she arrived, she was told that the chest X-ray she did for her Canadian work visa showed something that needed to be investigated. After a series of inconclusive X-rays an MRI came back to show suspicious masses. A further PET scan confirmed our worst fears—cancer in multiple sites in her body.

TuGo, the medical insurance she was required to get while in Canada to cover any medical emergencies, says that she is not covered for a life-threatening illness, just "medical emergencies”, and refuses to cover any medical treatment.

The national health care in Quebec will not cover any medical expenses either based on the working visa Levinia and Nathan hold.

As for their South African medical insurance, she had to cancel that when she left the country as they don’t cover any medical expenses for anyone who is out of the country for more than three months.

Levinia believed she had medical insurance to cover anything critical in Canada, but she does not.

She is in a gap in the system, which we all had no idea existed until now.

In the meantime, we are meeting with a lawyer to determine whether she has a case with the medical insurance company. We’ve been in discussions with our provincial MP to see how we may be able to get her medical support, but this could take months.

We need to move faster than this.

In the next month, she will require more diagnosis, including a complex biopsy, additional scans, and multiple doctor appointments. She will also need to start radiotherapy as soon as possible to help with the very debilitating pain she is now experiencing.

We are reaching out to you for support to:

• Assist with medical bills, including diagnostics and early treatment

• Support the family with costs while Levinia can’t work and her husband finishes his studies in March 2024

• Join our community to hold our precious Levinia, her little one and husband Nathan in love and healing thoughts and prayers.

For those who don’t know Levinia, we want to share what a remarkable individual she is.

She is a healer who has touched many people’s lives with her courageous and irresistible Levinianess. She has a massive heart and a love for people and invests so much of herself into her friendships and relationships. She is the most dedicated mom, wife and friend.

She has made significant contributions and pioneered innovations in the Arts and Culture sector in Southern Africa and is deeply passionate and connected to her work transforming systems supporting the creative arts.

She is important in our communities and deeply loved by so many.

While cancer is a scary diagnosis, it is also an opportunity.

An opportunity to bring a community together. An opportunity to heal, to learn and to grow for everyone. We are actively choosing to believe that this will be an incredible and remarkable journey. One filled with hardness, humbleness, care and love. We will transform the darkness deep fear, and trauma of the cancer journey to one of deep transformation and community love and support.

Right now, Levinia needs your care and support. We are asking you, our community of friends and family and even those who don’t know our most precious Levinia, to please support this healing.

You can help in these ways. Firstly, by making a financial donation to help cover the already-accumulating medical costs. We ask that if you make a donation, you do so with love and not fear. When you hit that donate button, take a moment to imagine Levinia and her family healed, whole and happy. Donate with love and joy.

You may be unable to donate, and we still need your support. You can send Levinia a message of support. These are powerful acts of connection and are so valuable and precious. Please share here . Again, when you send this message, take a moment to imagine Levinia and her family healed, whole and happy. Connect with a heart filled with love, not fear.

We want to acknowledge that we are asking you to support our beautiful Levinia while there is so much happening in the world right now. We want to take this moment to send our love and thoughts to all those who have lost lives, families, friends and homes. We pray for healing and light.

Thank you. This means everything to us,

Ondine, Rolene, Alex, Lonwabo

Levinia's most dedicated planning committee :)