Kathy, who was born in Cape Town worked in sales for 28 years when she decided to retire because of her daughter’s illness. Her daughter, aged 24 years old at the time was diagnosed with liver cancer when she decided to quit to look after her for 6 months until she passed away. Before retirement, in 2006 her mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and was given 3- 6 months to live. Fortunately at the time with her flexibility at work she was able to attend to her work matters and at the same time attend to her mother’s needs by taking her to hospital etc.  Despite the life expectancy doctors gave her, her mother lived for 12 months and passed away.

With her daughter no longer there and her mother who passed away, one would think that things couldn’t get any worse but 2 years later her dad went into a diabetic coma for 7 weeks and Kathy had to endure the strain of living between hospital and home again. “It was at this stage where I needed to ground my faith” she added. With so much pressure on her shoulders, Kathy landed up in hospital with a stroke, where the left hand side of her body was completely lame.

Kathy wasn’t doing too well but soon this would change for the better. Her husband’s aunt who was ill and in a wheelchair was invited to a support group session at Abundant Life. Kathy politely offered to take her and started participating in the groups. This is what Kathy needed and where she found her healing. She was then asked to get involved more and started volunteering.

Kathy is now part of the Abundant Life family and soon she will be revolutionising the Charity Shop, organizing Group Sessions, and arranging transport for patients. She loves what she does and will be there for a very long time.