Good Morning Angels: A mom’s leap of faith to save her bullied son’s eye pays off

BACKGROUND: What do you do, when the doctor says your teenaged child urgently needs an operation, to save his painful eye, but you simply cannot afford it? What do you do when the doctor then says it is critical now, gives you more than 50% discount, and you still cannot pay? Having nowhere to turn, single mom Alberta Gunkel from Randburg decided to take a leap of faith. Her son Jadon has had his operation earlier this week. After months, his pain is gone and according to the doctor, Jadon will regain the full function of his eye. Jadon is a hard worker - he has overcome dyslexia to average 72% at school. He also dealt with the bullying, that caused his eye problem in the first place. Now, Alberta must climb the next mountain finding the R25 000,00 needed to pay for the operation.

REQUEST FOR: Jadon Gunkel

REQUEST FROM: Tracy van der Merwe

ANGEL: Christo Bezuidenhout from the Round Table

SPONSORING: The Round Table will foot the entire bill for Jadon’s retinal repair eye surgery to the value of R 25 000,00!

ORIGINAL REQUEST:  

Good day,

Jadon is a grade 9 learner in RPA-Randburg Privaat Akademie - an Afrikaans remedial high school in Johannesburg. 

Jadon had an eye injury (to the retina) when he was younger. Last year this flared up (he had retinal detachment) and it has been causing significant problems for him with everything he does. As you can imagine his school work is affected, and the frustration he must be experiencing on a day to day basis must be enormous.

It is just his mom and himself, and unfortunately she cannot afford the operation he so desperately needs for normal day-to-day activities. The operation cannot be done in a state facility, so there is no alternative to a private procedure. She cannot afford medical aid, which means she must pay private rates out of pocket. Initially the cost of the operation was quoted at

R60 000 but the doctors and hospital brought this significantly down to R25 000. This is to repair his retina that was damaged during an incident on the playground four years ago.

Jadon is in a lot of constant pain and the operation needs to be done asap - however, his mother simply still cannot afford it - even after the more than 50% discount.

She also cannot afford medical aid.

My plea is for anyone out there that could possibly help in any way, shape or form.

Thank you for your consideration.

Tracy van der Merwe