The state of the world we live in

Before having kids, I used to read newspapers and watch the news on TV all the time.  My current affairs were really very up to date and I knew the names of most heads of state and had insights into the economies of several states.  After having kids I know the names of all the teletubbies, I know the words to most nursery rhymes and I can recite the content of a couple of kid’s books when woken at 3am.  I also know that you need more than twenty coins to buy a house. 

My knowledge of current affairs these days comes from the bits of news I can gather on the radio in the morning in between getting my brood dressed for school and most of their teeth brushed.  I also need to get myself dressed and hair blow dried, lunches packed and the like in a very limited amount of time.  Getting kids dressed really is an ungrateful job and if I do not check underneath all the winter’s clothes, I fetch Liam at school in the afternoons and see the oddest thing.  I see a kid running around in his Spiderman pyjamas (summer pyjamas no less) with his red gumboots.  And when I get close enough, I see that it is Liam.  Even worse, the teacher then tells me that they have been searching for his underwear the whole day and he replies that he went commando.  So news and death and destruction do not at present feature high on my agenda in the mornings. 

Our dear Madiba is ill, and that is sadly the only bit of the news that I do manage to catch.  I wish that the Kardashian like Mandela’s would just stop bickering and arguing, leave Madiba alone and let his legacy live on.  Don’t destroy his life’s work at the end.  Be dignified and strong.

Listening to the bunch of reporters camped outside the hospital makes me sad, because there are real issues out there, like children dying of leukaemia for goodness sake.  Instead of the thousands of rands spent on portable loo’s for these journalists, we could have added people to the bone marrow registry, something that is close to my heart.  A person has a 1:100 000 chance of finding a suitable bone marrow donor.  The South African Bone Marrow Registry today has 65 000 potential donors so your chances in South Africa for finding a donor is basically zero.  Goodness, I hope nobody in my family ever needs bone marrow.  My husband often asks me why I do these things; well quite frankly because if people like me did not donate blood four times a year or join the Bone Marrow Registry, more people including innocent children will die.

I have often written about Liam and how he almost died at birth.  He had a blood transfusion that very first night in NICU and if someone had not donated blood, he would have died.  Harsh reality to face up to, and yes, not comparable to kids dying of leukaemia, but the principles are the same.

I work with many charity organisations as part of my daily job, and what really hits the hardest is when any child suffers, regardless of whether it is as a result of illness or poverty.  I always picture my own children and then it is a cause that I can relate to and support.

So, today, I am writing to you as a mother, please, get involved in any cause close to your heart, mine is the Bone Marrow Registry and the Sunflower Fund.  It costs R2 000 per donor to get tested and added to the Registry.  Please join, and if you are scared of needles, send them money.  Have a heart.