Caroline Krzychylkiewicz raises over R15 000 from Westcliff Tea

Caroline’s Story: I had never heard of The Sunflower Fund until my father was diagnosed with Leukemia in 2008. It wasn’t until we had to go through the stressful process of trying to find my dad a stem cell donor that I even became aware of the need for stem cell donors.

When we found out that my dad needed a stem cell transplant, I thought that they would surely find a match for my dad from one of our family. We all went to be typed but none of us were a match. They searched the SABMR for a match but no matches were found. The search was then extended to beyond our borders and finally a match was found in Germany.

A man my family had never met and whose name we will never be allowed to know did one of the most selfless things a person can do and donated his stem cells to save the life of a person he had never met.

The transplant was performed in 2009 and was a success. However, in 2010 my dad relapsed and passed away. Although it was only a short time that my dad was free from Leukemia, the transplant gave my dad time. Time to see his first grandson turn One; Time to see his son married; Time to see his daughter engaged; Time to retire to Plett with his wife, a lifelong dream of his.

“There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.” – Brian Tracy.  That is what our family spent the months after my dad’s transplant doing… the important things!

Everyone deserves a chance to have more time and so I decided to host a High Tea to help raise money for The Sunflower Fund. To help grow the SABMR and give other people needing transplants the hope of more time.

The first of what will hopefully become an annual event was held at the exquisite Westliff Hotel. Ladies donned their prettiest hats and dressed up for a day of high tea and flowers.

The ladies all enjoyed a delicious tea provided by the Westcliff while they watched a very moving video about The Sunflower Fund. Then they were treated to a magnificent FlowerScape demonstration by Jill Manson from Corolation Flowers. Her demonstration uses flowers to encourage healing and I think that everyone who attended the tea took home more than just a full tummy. The ladies were also shown a couple of quick and surprisingly easy ways to arrange flowers in a creative way for the festive season.

One lucky lady also walked away with an Apple IPad which was given away in a lucky draw.

My heartfelt thanks to The Westcliff for sponsoring the PA system and the venue. To Afrihost for sponsoring 2 tables at the event as well as the IPad. To Standard Bank group Securities for their generous donation and to Lauren from The Sunfower Fund for giving such a moving talk.