Mom pleads for help to treat two stricken sons
AT the age of 28, a Durban mother’s life was turned upside down when she was diagnosed with cancer and her two sons with muscular dystrophy.
Now, 16 years later, Claudette Sigamoney wants to empower and educate people about the disease, as well as raise funds to help her to keep her elder child alive on a R21 000-a-month portable ventilator.
Sigamoney, a single mother, has two wheelchairbound children who suffer with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a progressive neuromuscular disorder that results in muscle weakness.
Her elder son, Tyronne, 24, is now permanently hooked to a portable ventilator at his home in North Beach, Durban, after spending two months in ICU this year following respiratory failure.
Sigamoney, a lawyer, is head of small, medium and micro-sized enterprises at the Durban Chamber of Business. She is making an impassioned plea to donors to help her to raise money to cover Tyronne’s R31 000 monthly medical costs, besides other expenses such as diapers.
“I rent the ventilator for R21 000 a month and spend R10 000 on the consum-
Life is short. It is not an obstacle. These are challenges. Some days are good and some are bad
ables,” said Sigamoney.
She will be hosting a fundraising dinner on Friday at the Durban chamber.
“I want to invite businesses to the event. I want to create an awareness around muscular dystrophy and its challenges. The idea behind the fundraising is that I would need the ventilator for my younger son, Clerrade. And if I don’t use it for Clerrade, I would use the ventilator for some other child with muscular dystrophy.
“I’m an empowered woman who wants to educate others about muscular dystrophy. It is a very sad disease that attacks all your muscles.”
She said it was the worst nightmare of her life when Tyronne was diagnosed in May 1998.
“I had to research the disease. Two months earlier, I was diagnosed with cancer of the uterus and in August we found out about Clerrade,” she said.
Tyronne, who has a fulltime caregiver, was diagnosed at the age of eight.
He completed his matric at Open Air, a special-needs school in Durban, and has pursued his studies in law. He is presently doing his master’s degree.
“Life is short. It is not an obstacle,” said Tyronne. “These are challenges. Some days are good and some are bad.”
Clerrade, 22, said his concern was that he would end up in Tyronne’s position when he is his age and would need a ventilator.