Amanzimtoti swimmer aims for gold in September

An Amanzimtoti swimmer is using her talent to spread awareness of childhood cancer. Monica ‘Mica’ Botha, 12, and her mother Marinda have been hard at work, making 150 gold ribbons to hand out to swimmers at the Seagulls short course national champs taking place at Kings Park from 26 to 29 September.

“The gold ribbons are a simple act of kindness to create awareness. Every ribbon is handmade and represents a child somewhere in the world battling cancer. I hope lots of swimmers grab their free ribbon at the gala to show their support and I promise to swim my heart out,” said Mica.

The cause is dear to her heart, as she battled with her health from as young as two-years-old. She was hospitalised frequently, mostly for pneumonia. She was also anemic and was tested for leukemia. Her immunity was very low and things did not look good. “It was a very stressful time for our family,” said Marinda. Fortunately the tests came back negative and we were so grateful when no cancer was detected, we decided that we will actively campaign for childhood cancer awareness.”

What started out as her parents’ commitment has been taken over by the young swimmer, because she is so grateful for her health. She has always battled asthma and started swimming as therapy for it when she was six-years-old. September is her annual checkup and she received great news this year that she is winning the battle and her medication will be reduced on a trial basis from November.

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“Swimming assists lungs to generate new healthy cells according to her doctor. We are positive she will outgrow this condition, but our childhood cancer awareness campaigning will continue, even after she ‘beats asthma’ as she calls it,” said Marinda.

Mica supports Gold In September (G9), an initiative created by 11-year-old Annie Bartosz, to turn the world gold in September for children battling cancer. G9 is a non-profit organisation that works towards raising awareness and funds for researchers who work towards finding a cure for childhood cancer.

“G9 ran a Facebook marketing campaign in 2014. We simply had to change our FB profile pictures to support childhood cancer awareness, which we did. However, we felt we should do more and it simply started small, growing every year. We could not find a similar organisation that supports research in South Africa. The CHOC Cows raise funds for childhood cancer awareness, but the money goes towards children with cancer. We wanted to support research organisations, but we end up supporting both The CHOC Cows and Gold In September,” said Marinda.

In 2017 her and Marinda started making 100 gold ribbons as part of their awareness campaign at the champs. “We hand the ribbons out to the swimmers and parents to support awareness and they wear the ribbons on their club gear to show their support. It is small, but every ribbon represents a child with cancer and nobody minds wearing the ribbons,” said Mica.

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Gold in September followed their online progress and in 2018 created a fundraising page for Mica called Everyday Hero. The Toti swimmer is the top female point scorer at KZN junior champs in her age group since 2015 and she raises awareness and swims for children with cancer every year. Follow Mica’s efforts on Facebook.

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