Luntu is traveling with Wings & Wishes for the past 9 years! She started traveling with us in 2014 when she was just 5 years old. She was newly diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, an illness where the body’s immune system attacks its own cells and tissues.
Initially, she traveled to Red Cross Hospital every 3 months to meet with the medical team. Once her treatment plan was in place and she was responding well to treatment, she started traveling twice a year. Thus far Wings & Wishes funded 154 trips!
Luntu says that the most difficult part of her illness was to accept that she will have to take chronic medication every day. She also fell behind at school and it was difficult to see her friends moving on, while she is left behind.
Luntu is looking forward to her 14th birthday in July as well as her grade 7 farewell at the end of the year.
Her granny, Nobuntu, walked the journey with her. Traveling to specialists at Red Cross Hospital enables them to manage Luntu’s illness and allows her to live as normal a life as possible. Nobuntu says that they are forever grateful to Wings & Wishes for supporting them for almost 10 years, never turning down their request for assistance.
