Evotel donates to Rene-Lily Gold Golf Day
Always eager to help wherever possible in the communities that it serves, Fibre Network Operator (FNO), Evotel, contributed to the Rene-Lily Gold fundraising golf day that took place at the Oppenheimer Golf Club in Welkom on Saturday 25 June 2022.
We believe in giving back.
“We are confident that the R1000 sponsorship for the event and our R10 000 donation to CHOC will make a difference in the lives of these children and their families who have to deal with cancer. It is just one of the ways we give back to communities we operate in, through contributing towards a worthy cause,” says Bradley Bekker, Head of Brand at Evotel.
The golf day was arranged to help raise funds for Rene-Lily Gold, a 5-year-old girl from Welkom that was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma (cancer) at the age of 3 and needed additional isotope immunotherapy treatments. She had already received chemotherapy but needed the isotope immunotherapy to try and slow down cancer that was spreading. The immunotherapy is unfortunately very expensive and not covered by their medical aid, and the family needed about R560 000 for the first two treatments.
Unfortunately, Rene-Lily lost her battle with cancer on 29 May 2022 and sadly passed away before the organisers could get the golf day arranged and finalised.
Though the intention was to help raise funds for Rene-Lily’s treatments, her family agreed that the golf day should still continue and her mother, Christene, asked that half of the money raised for her daughter’s treatment should now be donated to her friend, Janique Venter, for her treatment and the other half should be donated to the Childhood Cancer Foundation of South Africa (CHOC).
Many people came out to support the cause.
“Because of looming cold and rainy weather as well as the news of Rene-Lily’s passing, we expected fewer people to attend and be part of the fundraising. We were, therefore, pleasantly surprised at how many people came out to support the cause,” says Andra Karstens, Administrator at Welkom ISP, Davo Business Intelligence.
“Evotel’s donation made us realise that we have large and successful businesses that support the cause of helping children and their families living with cancer and would like to thank them for their huge contribution that has made our fundraising such a success,” says the organisers, a group of Welkom community members.
Thirteen businesses, of which Evotel was one, together with a school and two professional golf teams sponsored the holes and manned these sponsored holes to ensure that the 82 players who took to the course had a great day.
Two Mozambique holidays as well as 2 bunches of flowers and a wheelbarrow filled with drinks were also auctioned off to add to the proceeds of the day, amounting to a total of R80 078 raised for the day.
We are glad to be making a difference.
“Although Rene-Lily will unfortunately not directly benefit from the money raised during this golf day, Evotel is glad that our funding will still make a difference in the lives of other childhood cancer patients, through CHOC. We solute Rene-Lily and her parents for continuing with the golf day, paying it forward for other children in need to benefit from the proceeds,” Bekker concludes.
