One of Joburg’s youngest and bravest firefighters celebrates 4th birthday
Rueven Pretorius has been kicking leukaemia's butt for a year and with the love of his family and the support of the firefighting fraternity he is sure to realise his dream of becoming a firefighter.
Young Rueven Pretorius, who wants to be a firefighter when he is older, has been battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) for a year after he was diagnosed three days after his third birthday. He is the youngest sibling and has two sisters, Mieke and Mia.
His mother Sjaneen says, “Soon after diagnosis and when treatment began he was considered high-risk because of the low initial response to chemotherapy. He has been through neutropenia, life support, intrathecal chemo, and six blocks of treatment, all to get him to the point of his fourth birthday, which he is thankfully celebrating in remission!”
During his severe treatment, he had a host of problems which led to muscle loss, needing a feeding tube, infections and other ills requiring him to relearn how to stand and walk independently.
“He is currently on a two-year maintenance cycle of low-dose chemotherapy treatments but we hope he will be able to return to school in September.”
“He has spent virtually the whole of the last year in isolation and we really wanted this birthday to be a special one, and it was. We were overwhelmed by the response of everyone involved who made this day more perfect than we could have ever imagined.”
Owner of SCP Security Clive Maher brought his fire, search and rescue vehicle to a local park for Reuven as a surprise for his birthday.
“His mum reached out to see if anyone could make her little boy’s dream come true by becoming a fireman for a day.
SCP Security, Community Group Firefighters Association (CGFA) and SB Security pooled resources to give Reuven an unforgettable birthday.
CGFA brought six fire rescue vehicles and firefighting equipment, SB Security had several vehicles with their lights flashing as did SCP Security patrol cars as they escorted the fire engine in a parade across the city.
“We got him a cake, balloons, a fireman’s outfit, a fire helmet and some gifts. He had a ball exploring the fire truck with his siblings and it was awesome to see him so happy,” says Maher.
CGFA said, “Being a future firefighter, we could never leave one of our own to celebrate alone and we made sure that we delivered an unforgettable experience.”
Maher says, “This is what community is all about. What an amazing family and what a privilege it was for all of us to be able to bring a little joy to an incredibly brave and happy boy. We hope memories of the day will last a lifetime.”
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