A whopping R300 000 was raised at a benefit golf day for the day-to-day needs of a certain young Marno Greyvenstein (3).
The second annual golf day, held at Eagle Canyon Golf Estate on 25 February, gave companies a chance to give back during an afternoon of better-ball golf.
Honeydew resident, Marno was born with multiple birth defects and is still fighting the complications caused by many of them. His parents, Emile and Mynette have medical aid but it does not cover everything. “Marno can currently not crawl, he can’t walk, he can’t speak. We are doing speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy on a weekly basis and he really needs funding for all these kinds of things,” Emile explained on a warm day at the golf.
“We are just really happy to have this day once again. I just want to say thank you to all our sponsors… without you, Marno would not be where he is currently.”
Marno is suffering from, among many other things, an absent corpus collosum in the brain (which is responsible for quick communication between the left and right hemispheres), cerebral atrophy (shrinking of the frontal lobe of the brain), underdeveloped optic nerves in his eyes and severe mandibular hypoplasia, which is a short bottom jaw and insignificant chin.
“This is our second year backing the golf day,” said Daniel Gibhard, CEO of the Skills Development Corporation (SDC), which were the main sponsors on the day.
“A lot of parents would have given up but they have stuck through with Marno. It makes us happy to see other people happy so this is important to us. It makes you value the small things in life, that our children are healthy, although that is a big thing you do not see.”
Emile Greyvenstein said community members and companies interested in helping Marno can contact him on babymarno1@gmail.com or 083 231 0432.
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