Support Slipper Day and help children reach for their dreams

TWO children with illnesses who have had their lives changed, have had their dreams fulfilled.

With its annual Slipper Day, Reach For A Dream is hoping to fulfil the dreams of more children.

Slipper Day will take place next month under the theme “Not all Heroes Wear Capes”.

The organisation’s chief executive, Julia Sotirianakos, said to do the work they did was special and it was a daily reminder more hope was needed in the world.

“This Slipper Day promises to echo the hearts of all our heroes, and why it is so important for South Africans to come together and believe in the power of dreams and, more so, what this means for a child sick in hospital,” said Sotirianakos.

Raqeeb Palm, 7, from Heideveld, was diagnosed with Idiopathic Aplastic Anaemia – bone marrow failure – when he was three years old.

His mother, Zaida Palm, said they had noticed unusual bruising on his body which looked like pimples, only to discover he was bleeding under the skin.

“Since he had a compromised immune system he could not go anywhere, and I find it ironic that he used to live the way we have come to live now with the pandemic because he could not go anywhere, and when we went out he had his mask on.”

However, she said he was much better now, even though he needed a bone marrow transplant, which he has not yet had.

Zaida said Raqeeb loved Mickey Mouse and Disney characters and it was always his dream to go to Disneyland.

“A week before we were supposed to go to the US, Covid-19 hit us and we could no longer go. He was disappointed a bit, but was cheered up when Reach for a Dream brought him a PS4 console,” she said.

Eathan Amsterdam was recently diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer that begins in the cells that form bones.

He said he was very calm when he found out he had the illness.

“I was not scared at all when the doctor diagnosed me, I was normal.”

Slipper Day support stickers will be available at all retail store partners.