“It is sometimes difficult to keep believing when you are severely ill but never give up. Miracles do happen.” In February 2018 Levina Pretorius (Dienkie) from Roodepoort received a call from her doctors that her blood tests had revealed that something was amiss. A few days later after a short hospital stint, she was diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anaemia. This was an obvious shock to her and her family, but they never gave up hope. Dienkie needed a bone marrow stem cell transplant to save her life, but neither her brother nor her children were suitable matches. A 10/10 match was found in Beaufort Raath from George – Dienkie finally had her second chance at life. Following the transplant in 2019, the pair made contact in September 2022 via email and met in person in December 2022. Dienkie says the day she met Beaufort they spoke about how miracles do happen, and the transplant and their meeting is a testament to this fact. Dienkie now lives a normal, healthy life and is no longer on medication. In Dienkie’s words: “You need to trust. Just when you think of giving up, God sends you a miracle, sometimes in the form of a walking miracle like Beaufort. I can never thank him enough for what he has done for me.”
Never give up! Miracles do happen
