A group of Beacon Valley residents have honoured the memory and legacy of local community worker Fozia Rhodes.
Rhodes, who passed away in 2020 after a battle with cancer, was known in the community as a passionate crime fighter and advocate for cancer.
Recently, a group of residents and community workers handed over money collected to the CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation of South Africa, situated in Sybrand Park.
Part of this was creating awareness through community events and collecting funds for organisations.
Roellien Johnson says they chose CHOC House to help create awareness around childhood cancer and the work done by the organisation.
“This was aunty Fozia’s brainchild,” she says.
It was also done to honour two more women who lost their own battles to cancer.
“When aunty Fozia was still alive, we collected money to donate for cancer awareness. We couldn’t give it over the last two years (due to the pandemic) and met with the area manager of CHOC house to donate the money to them.”
According to their website, CHOC house is “a non-profit organisation that advocates for the health and well-being of children and teenagers diagnosed with cancer or life-threatening blood disorders and their families.”
Johnson says despite being unable to hand over the funds raised, they continued their efforts.
“We had raffles, rummage sales and donations. I heard an interview on radio where they interviewed one of the CHOC staff,” she says.
After consulting with the rest of the group and paying the organisation a visit, it was decided to donate the funds to them.
“We plan on doing more for the organisation by continuing with the rummage sales and getting other organisations also on board to promote them,” says Johnson.
- For more information, visit https://choc.org.za/
