Tristan Storm Els – Brain Tumor

During June and July 2016 Little 5 year old Tristan Els started having seizures and displayed an unusual behavior. This alerted his parents Charl and Tarryn to the fact that something was just not right.

Thus was to begin a very emotional and financially challenging journey for the Els family.

After several visits to doctors in Port Elizabeth and days of grueling tests at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, every parent’s worst nightmare was confirmed that Tristan a "left temporal lobe intra axial cystic solid mass lesion with avid contrast enhancement and surrounding vasogenic oedema".

Simply put Tristan diagnosed with a denign brain tumor, situated next to his brainstem which makes operating very risky. A devastating shock for the entire family.

Besides the enormous emotion strain on the Els family, the financial stress has been considerable: doctor’s visits, medical expenses, medication and traveling to Cape Town, time off work... all truly a night mare

Due to Tristan’s future medical procedures and to be closer to the renowned Red Cross Children’s Hospital, Charl and Tarryn also took the big step of relocating to Cape town.

The extended family has rallied to support Charl, Tarryn, Tristan and Jordyn-Leigh through this terribly traumatic and expensive time, but more help is needed

Doctor’s will be operating to remove the tumor on the 30th of March 2017