Support for Lorraine and her young Family

Lorraine and her husband Anthony immigrated to NZ from South Africa in 2019. Lydia, their beautiful daughter was born in April 2020. They are in New Zealand without any family who are all back in South Africa.

In October 2020 when her daughter was only 5 months old, Lorraine was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer called a Sarcoma. The tumor started growing sometime after the birth of her daughter. The tumor is to be surgically removed with a recovery time of at least 2 to 3 months and then additional treatments, scans and follow-ups.

This has been an incredible shock for her herself and her husband. In her words:

"This has come as a very big shock for us, seeing that we are a young family and have just had our first child. We moved from South Africa to New Zealand in May 2019 to have a better life.

We are currently without family support and my husband is working full time. We have decided to place Lydia, our baby, in a nursery school to help is get through this difficult time. We have also applied for my parents to come to NZ on humanitarian grounds so that they can provide emotional and physical support to us in this time. We are still waiting to have a final outcome on the application."

As her daughters playgroup with young babies the same age as Lydia, we were all deeply moved by the gravity of not only facing this as a new, young mother, but also doing so with no immediate family support. This is the reason we are trying to raise funds to assist her, in Lorraine's words:

"My aim to is get through this time. To LIVE. So that I can be here for my husband and my daughter and see her grow up and start a family of her own one day.

I am a social worker and once I get through this, hope to get back into the field and advocate for people who go through similar situations like ours."