Wall of Hope unveiled at Soweto Theatre
The colourful wall mural is aimed at raising awareness about blood cancers affecting children while at the same time educating locals about the importance of stem cell transplants.
With September being Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, DKMS Africa unveiled a Wall of Hope at the Soweto Theatre last week.
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The colourful wall mural is aimed at raising awareness about blood cancers affecting children while at the same time educating locals about the importance of stem cell transplants.
The campaign will run throughout the month and will culminate to the Sunflower Day campaign, an annual fundraising event which takes place on September 16.
The wall mural at the Soweto Theatre is also a tribute to Naledi Senamela and Tshegofatso Ralebipi who lost their lives to blood cancers.
Tshegofatso’s father, Lesiba Mokoena said he hopes the campaign will educate and encourage more people especially from the township to come forward and donate stem cells.
“It is actually not a life threatening donation.
“The more people come forward to donate, the better chances for the next child who has blood cancer to survive,” said Mokoena.
Since losing his eight year old daughter to acute lymphocytic leukaemia, Mokoena has decided to get involved with the Wall of Hope programme by DKMS Africa to help other parents who might be going through what he did.
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Mokoena explained that it was a very difficult time for him and his family wen Tshegofatso was sick and eventually passed away. When they contacted DKMS Africa to help find a donor for Tshegofatso, it was unfortunately too late.
“By the time the process kick-started, it was already too late because she passed away before we could do a media briefing to get more potential donors to come forwards and try help Tshegofatso,” explained Mokoena.
It is because of such reasons that educating locals about such things is important because finding a match is not always easy.
The more people come forward to test, the better chances of finding a match for a child who has leukaemia. It is also said that people are more likely to find a match from someone in the same ethnic group.
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Mokoena encouraged Sowetans to not be afraid of coming forward and donate stem cells as it can save lives.
For parents who have children who might have blood cancer, Mokoena encouraged them to seek help from medical experts as soon as possible so that the child’s life can be saved.
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