Little Tyrell's race comes to an end
AFTER suffering for four long years with a rare brain disease, little Tyrell Arendse, 7, died on Sunday afternoon. Tyrell, who crept into the heart of Mayor Patricia de Lille when she first met him two years ago, passed away after a tough battle with Batten Disease.
“For the past two years Tyrell became worse. He struggled to breathe and he became bedridden. Doctors told my husband and I that there is nothing more they can do,” Tyrell’s mom Jade Arendse said.
On Sunday the family had noticed that Tyrell had turned blue and struggled to breathe. “He passed away in my, his grandma and his father’s arms on Sunday afternoon,” Arendse said.
Tyrell was born a normal baby until he reached the age of 3. His health began to deteriorate in three stages. He first started getting seizures, his sight was also affected leaving him blind, he then lost his ability to talk and for the last two years of his life he was bedridden.
“It was heartbreaking for me when I saw my son was so normal and later doctors told me that there was no cure for this.” Arendse was running a Facebook page called Tyrell’s fight against Batten Disease. Here she provided insight into their lives and also gave a glimpse of what Tyrell had to go through on a daily basis. The Facebook page accumulated around 1 349 likes.
In 2015 after the Cape Argus reported about Tyrell’s condition, legendary race car driver Armien Levy opened his heart and car to the little boy. Levy, 67, took Tyrell on a special ride around the Killarney racetrack.
Batten disease is a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disorder which starts in childhood. Symptoms and signs usually start appearing around the ages of 2 and 10.
It starts off gradually with vision problems or seizures. Over a period of time children who are diagnosed with Batten Disease suffer mental impairment, seizures intensify and blindness sets in.
Only one in every 200 000 people carry the gene for Batten disease and Tyrell was one of two children in South Africa suffering from it.
Tyrell’s family is in great need of donations to help with the funeral set for Saturday. “My husband and I have been in and out with work and we are still paying the medical bills.”
E-mail jadeharker9@gmail.com, Facebook page Tyrell’s fight against Batten Disease. –