Conrad's Fundraiser
Why this campaign exists.
For more than twenty years, Conrad's work was helping other people walk. As an orthotist and prosthetist in South Africa and Canada, he fitted braces and artificial limbs for people who had lost their mobility to injury, illness or amputation, and then stayed beside them through the long work of getting it back.
Today he is the one who cannot stand. Two of his spinal discs have collapsed, a third is failing, and the nerves in his lower spine are compressed in several places. He has burning nerve pain, numbness and growing weakness in his legs. Most days he struggles to get out of bed. He returned home from Canada with no income and no medical cover, and he needs spinal fusion surgery.
The urgency is medical, not financial. Every month he waits, the risk grows that the nerve damage becomes permanent and no surgery can undo it.
He now has a hospital plan, but it cannot be used for this surgery until the waiting period ends. That leaves two paths, and both need support:
- If the surgery happens before his cover becomes active, every cost — consultations, scans, theatre, surgeon, hardware, recovery — falls to our family. We cannot carry that alone.
- If he waits for the cover, the bill drops considerably, but it does not disappear. Specialist shortfalls, implants, medication, physiotherapy and rehabilitation are rarely covered in full, and if there are complications, those costs climb quickly.
So whichever path Conrad takes, there is a real gap. This page exists to close it, to keep everyone honestly informed about his condition and the campaign, and to reach the people who might help — most of whom don't know he exists yet.
