Jacaranda FM Community Helps Doctor Save His Patient’s Eye Sight
16 November 2022, Johannesburg | Jacaranda FM and its Good Morning Angels initiative remains passionate about changing the lives of as many people around the country so when Pretoria-based Operation Healing Hands Doctor Gerhard Kok reached out to the radio station with a request that would help save his patient Mpho’s eye sight, the station jumped at the opportunity to assist.
37-year-old Mpho is in the real estate industry and is a husband to his loving wife and father to two sons aged 13 and 3 years old, all who depend on him. As a committed father and breadwinner of his family, he does everything he can to provide for his family. When he was diagnosed with diabetes some 13 years ago, he had to make some big changes to manage his condition. However, over the years, the diabetes has impacted on other aspects of his health.
One of these aspects is his eyes. Both of Mpho’s eyes are covered with cataracts, his retinas are damaged and he has bleeding behind his eyes. This has made doing every day tasks incredibly difficult. After reaching out to Dr Kok at Operation Healing Hands, Dr Kok explained that Mpho’s eyesight can be saved but that delaying intervention could mean the loss of at least one eye as the condition is already serious. This comes at a cost that the patient simply cannot afford.
Dr Kok, however, is committed to helping this young dad and has offered to do the necessary procedures pro-bono. Despite this generous offer, the cost of the procedure still comes in at a staggering R110,000 which is when Dr Kok turned to the Jacaranda FM Good Morning Angels team for help.
Martin Bester and the rest of the Good Morning Angels team jumped at the opportunity to help save Mpho’s eyes. After reaching out to some friends, Dave Arnold from Willard Batteries announced on air that Auto-X will assist with R55 000 towards the operation to save Mpho’s eyesight. Additionally, Martin revealed that the Good Morning Angels Fund will match this donation of R55 000 to make up the balance and to ensure that this eye-saving operation becomes a reality!