While there is hope,
we can never give up

‘The doctor sat me down and said, “I don’t have good news. What are your plans for Monday… or Tuesday? I told him I had to stand in for a colleague who was going on leave. He looked at me and said gently, “You need to schedule a mastectomy”. At that moment, my world fell apart. How could this be possible? What about my little girl with Down Syndrome, only seven years old, and my eldest, just nine? What about my husband, my parents, my friends, my work?’

Having already lost a child to leukaemia, this is how Elza-Marie van Lille’s own experience with cancer began.

But the saving grace was that she wasn’t alone. Her husband, her parents, her best friend, her brother who drove from Namibia to be with her, and her work colleagues all enveloped her.

Through surgery, chemotherapy and 33 sessions of radiation, when she sometimes wanted to give up, they never did.

Today, Elza-Marie is in remission, and looking back she says, “The treatment journey was far from easy, but it taught me so much about life. It gave me perspective, strength, and above all, HOPE”.

Through a friend, Elza-Marie heard about CANSA’s Relay For Life and became involved. Not only is she one of our Global Heroes of Hope, she’s a volunteer, fundraiser and supporter of others living with cancer.

Having lived through her own experience with the gift of hope, Elza-Marie feels that she’s now able to show others that there is always hope. Her life motto is, ‘While there is hope, we can never give up.’

Even if you’ve never thought about it, hope is what you give each time you send a donation to CANSA by clicking here.

That hope can invisibly start through your support of awareness, education, and free screening leading to early detection and successful treatment.

That hope continues in contact – via our CANSA Help Desk, counselling, and support groups.

You offer hope during treatment, keeping the doors of our care homes open for accommodation away from home. Your donation translates into specialised care for children and teens. You sponsor medical equipment, wigs, prostheses and assistive devices, stoma support and products, and much more.

You also allow for advocacy on the part of cancer patients; and precious research, which carries the hope of more that can be done to successfully prevent and treat cancer.

It’s commonly said that money can’t buy everything. But your money, donated today by clicking here now, will buy hope for someone who needs one of our CANSA support services.

And perhaps it’s fitting to let Elza-Marie have the last word:

While there is hope,
we can never give up

“To everyone who has walked –
and continues to walk – this journey with me,
and that of other cancer patients –
I salute you, and I thank you.”

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PLEASE COMPLETE THIS FORM IF YOU DO NOT REQUIRE A TAX CERTIFICATE

PLEASE COMPLETE THIS FORM IF YOU REQUIRE A TAX CERTIFICATE

IMPORTANT TAX INFORMATION

While there is hope,we can never give up

“To everyone who has walked – and continues to walk – this journey with me, and that of other cancer patients – I salute you, and I thank you.”

While there is hope,
we can never give up

“To everyone who has walked –
and continues to walk – this journey with me,
and that of other cancer patients –
I salute you, and I thank you.”