Here is Richard's story written by my mother, Stephanie Williams.

When faced with the news of Richards sudden illness, we were forced to face some very difficult truths.

‘Sometimes bad things happen to good people. We don't know the meaning of all things, but we know God loves His children! And because He loves us, He will never desert us’. John Bytheway

We have been through difficult times for over 40 years together. Our marriage is strong and our lives have been happy together. We are not going to give up now. We have had the blessing of 2 wonderful children who have taken decisions which would give their families opportunities in a world that extended outside of South Africa. We applaud them for that.

We now have to face challenges that many other families do, and we will give it our best shot. We have a lovely home in South Africa and have the memories of family growing up, travels and the weather that is the envy of all who have experienced it. We knew that the best we could do was to give our children opportunities we didn’t have, was the best way to get them to a level in their lives, we could not reach.

Our hopes were that our efforts would make real differences in their lives. We were proven right. The South African sun that we love so much for the opportunity to play and watch sport, has had the devastating result of Skin Cancer. This manifested itself in a mole on Richards ear. We had no idea how long it has been spreading as he has been fit and healthy until February of this year. Now it has spread and has buried roots on his lungs and liver. There are treatment options, none of the traditional ones are very good options and the best available come with enormous costs. Over a million rand is way beyond our reach but although we are really fearful that this is a battle too far, we are hoping against hope that there is an answer to our prayers.

Unfortunately the source of the solution is money, and at this stage we have very little. We have love, hope, trust and support from friends and family in large amounts. Any assistance we can get towards the medical costs of keeping my small family together will be truly welcome.