Ben our Leukemia warrior

Ben is a 14-year-old boy from Namibia (in Africa), who is being treated for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia at the University of Cape Town Private Academic Hospital. He has T-Cell ALL, where too many T-cell lymphoblasts (immature white blood cells) are found in the blood, bone marrow, and tissues.

Ben was diagnosed after being flown in with a medical rescue jet to Cape Town on the evening of the 25th of November 2017 and Professor Novitsky immediately started induction chemotherapy due to an episode of acute dyspnoea.

During the course of December 2017, Ben had a terrible setback, where he contracted an infection . As a result he lost a total of 28.6 pounds from 25 November 2017 to 26 December 2017.

As each patient reacts differently, this part of the treatment can vary, but the family has been told to prepare themselves for Ben to spend at least three months in isolation. The purpose of intense chemotherapy in isolation is to allow the white blood cell count to reach zero (which means there is no immunity to fight infection - hence isolation).

Prof and his team will then start with Neupogen injections, which will help his white blood cell count to increase in the hope that his body will reproduce the correct amount of white blood cells.

Unfortunately, the family's hospital plan does not cover all treatments and excludes certain procedures, scans. In addition, it will only cover up to a certain percentage of his hospital stay.

As he has been in an out of High Care for two and a half months and now must spend a potential further three months in the isolation unit, it will be impossible for the family to cover these costs.

Any contribution, should you wish to assist, will be greatly appreciated. An accounting firm in the family's home town has set up a trust account in Ben's name and books will be open for inspection to any contributors, to see that the funds collected are purely used for medical costs and costs relating to the family having to potentially spend six months in a different country to provide the correct care for Ben to survive.

* We also set up a Facebook group this week to make updates easier, if you would like to see the most recent updates, joint the group : Ben our Leukemia Warrior on Facebook. We created two in error so please join the one with members and photos.

*PAYMENTS FROM CREDIT CARDS OR DEBIT CARDS IN NAMIBIA : There seems to be a hickup and we await their response, from South Africa and America it works perfectly but not Namibia : For Namibia Payments maybe until resolved rather pay into the following account via internet banking :

Bank : Bank Windhoek Ltd

Branch name : Omaruru

Branch Code : 485873

Account Name: Bennie Support Fund

Account Number : 2000364490

Savings account

Swift Code : BWLINANX