My son Tryden Bloom was diagnosed with a lung disease called Bronchiolitus Oblitarance in March 2009, he had just turned 1 in Jan 2009. It was the hardest time for me and my wife and our 9 year old boy Cameron.

It was a real battle for the whole of 2009, we spent about 4 months added up over the year in Sandton Clinic. Tryden had hundreds of Xrays, 2 Cat Scans, he must have given over a liter of blood over this time too. He has had a lung biopsy too, to find out exactly what strain of the disease he has. When all these tests were done our boy eventually came home but to live on an oxygen machine 24h a day.

To cut a long story short, Tryden is now only on 12h oxygen and he started going to school in July 2010. He still has the disease and there are still lots of test and more hospital visits to be done, but he is a brave strong fun little boy, and we all love him so much.

Where is this going ; Last year 2 months before the 94.7 of 2009, myself and Trydens God Father Nelson decided that we would raise monies in order to purchase a portable oxygen machine. He needed this as it ran on Lithium Batteries and was light and 100% need for him, as when we would have power failures his home Oxygen Machine would switch off. This is South Africa and power cuts do happen. With this machine Tryden could go out the house and visit his gran parents and do his favorite thing and that is to ride the Train at  “Lifestyles Garden Centre”. So many people dug into their hearts and pockets and helped us to raise about R20 000 towards Tryden’s machine. It was not enough though.

Fortunately our cries did not go upon deaf ears. Tryden was the 1st to receive his wish on the 94.7 Xmas wish list for 2009. Momentum Health donated the rest of the monies we needed to purchase the Oxygen machine.

I am a full and strong believer in the “Pay It Forward” phrase.