Hi, I'm Chris 👋
I'm proud to say that I'm a childhood cancer survivor - currently 30 years in remission as of 2026. I was diagnosed with Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) when I was four and a half, I will be forever grateful to still be here.
At the time I had a very supportive family - my parents, my brother, and my sister. No words could come close to the appreciation I have for them. I was fortunate enough to have received a dream from Reach For A Dream - and now, 30 years later, I'm aiming to get 42 dreams fulfilled.
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My daughter has just passed 4 and a half - turning 5 at the end of 2026 - and it shook me to my core. It puts everything into perspective and makes you truly value every moment.
I received treatment at Joburg Gen hospital for about 8 months followed by many years of checkups, and while there Reach For a Dream made a little boy’s dream come true. They approached my parents who then chatted to me about 3 dreams I had. I had a few outlandish dreams (what 4 year old boy wouldn’t right?) like space travel and going in a submarine.
About a year later I found myself in Cape Town. The main part of the dream was being at the Simonstown Naval base on an actual submarine (incredible, how cool?) for a kid that was life-changing, which was then followed by a trip to the aquarium, going in the tank, meeting some of the naval officers etc. I still vividly remember the trip and how it made me feel. Reach for a Dream went absolutely all out for my dream and I’ll be forever grateful.
My parents eventually ended up becoming Reach For a Dream volunteers themselves, and this allowed me to see how giving back was also so important. Having gone with them on a few dream deliveries, I will always remember seeing the joy on kid’s faces (and their families) when a dream became a reality.
As a family, we were part of the R4AD fold for many years and they, together with countless other organisations helping kids going through Cancer, will always have a special place in my heart.
The amount of hope Reach For a Dream gives kids is truly spectacular.
Reach for a Dream made me feel like a kid and forget about how cancer made me feel – and for a moment, I want to believe that it also helped my parents and family forget about all the bad that had gone on leading up to this.
But Reach For a Dream makes life a little bit easier for those kids that are going through so much, and helps them and their loved ones get a little bit more joy out of life. I am grateful and blessed to have survived, lived an incredibly full life, and to have a family of my own today.
Cancer sucks. No kid (or adult) should ever have to go through it.
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