A Johannesburg paediatrician and mother of two‚ who raised more than R1-million last month to help pay for a new chemotherapy drug‚ has succumbed to blood cancer.
On Friday morning‚ Kerryn Neilson's husband Sheldon broke the news on Facebook where more than 1 000 people followed the 32-year-old's battle against T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-all.)
"Today I held my best friend while she took her last breath. My heart is broken. My beautiful wife‚ Kerryn Botes Neilson‚ you have fought so fiercely‚ for so long. You have been an example to all of us."
"For all that you suffered‚ you did it with grace and you taught us all what it means to be brave. I am so proud of you. I will love you forever. Until we meet again‚" he said.
Neilson's campaign on crowdfunding platform BackaBuddy is one of two local medical fundraisers to raise more than R1-million for treatment.
When Nielson‚ from Midrand‚ was diagnosed with T-all‚ her haematologist suggested a chemotherapy drug‚ Nelarabine‚ which is approved in America and Europe but not readily available in South Africa.
The estimated cost of the treatment was R2.5-million. Nielson raised close to R1.3-million. She was only able to have one round of the drug before she contracted an infection.
Last week‚ her husband said on Facebook that she took a turn for the worse. "Her pain became unbearable and she was started on continuous morphine. That was the last time that I was able to have a normal conversation with her."
"It was not expected that Kerryn would survive this long. Sometimes when I talk to her she sheds a tear‚ other times I can see her grit her teeth and the fierce determination in her eyes and I know that she's still in there‚" he wrote at the time.
He said she was surrounded by her family and friends.
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