Good Morning Angels: Lauren fights for other's lives, now she’s fighting for her own

BACKGROUND: As a paramedic, Lauren has dedicated her life to helping those in ultimate distress, need and life-threatening situations. It was during one of these situations in 2017, when Lauren was helping a six-year-old girl, that she herself got injured.

Despite her own pain, Lauren made sure her little patient was safe and taken care of before she went for a check-up. She had cracked ribs, but tests showed more … she was ultimately diagnosed with an extremely rare form of lung cancer. Because the cancer is so rare, there was no known treatment protocol and initially, the medical aid did not want to cover the prescribed treatment. 

The community came together and assisted … over the past three years, Lauren’s cancer has gone in remission and returned, to the point that she could not work for quite some time. However, Lauren is back at work as a paramedic, while fighting cancer that has returned. This time, she needs R35 000 for six months of treatment, that is not covered by medical aid. A number of people have asked Good Morning Angels to assist the brave and selfless Lauren, because "We need this angel just a little bit longer on earth."

REQUEST FOR: Lauren de Swardt 

REQUEST FROM: Janine Steyn 

ANGEL: LottoStar … with love

SPONSORING: LottoStar is joining forces with Good Morning Angels with a special "With Love” fund to give added assistance to as many people as possible during this challenging COVID-19 pandemic. From this fund, LottoStar will assist Lauren to cover the cost of her treatment to the value of R35 000,00

ORIGINAL REQUEST:

Good morning Martin and team,

I am writing to you on behalf of a true earthly angel. 

She is strong and inspirational and keeps a lot of us believing in our faith

Please Martin and team this woman needs a few donations to help with treatment of a rare lung disease. Below is her story.  

Lauren was diagnosed with a rare lung cancer in 2017. She is a paramedic for Er24 and was treating a critical girl who had been knocked over by a car. Whilst she was treating she was unfortunately involved in an accident in the back on the ambulance whilst treating her, sustaining fractured ribs on the way to hospital.  She continued treating the patient all the way to the hospital despite her pain putting her patient first.  Once she had handed over the patient at hospital she then sought medical attention for her own injuries. When a CT scan was done they not only saw the fractured ribs, but there were several lesions all over her lungs. The radiographer immediately reported in this and then the several tests were started, including a thoracotomy to take biopsies of the lung. After couple days it came out that it was a rare lung cancer, so rare that she was one of the 11 recorded persons diagnosed in the world with this at the time. 

The medical aid were not familiar with this specific disease at the time and therefore refused to pay for any chemotherapy treatment,  consultations , scans or blood tests. As word got out in her community,  she had obviously made a good name for herself as a paramedic that several people,  including anonymous donations, donations from friends and donations from an organization called Solidaritiet Helpende Hande, she was then able to come up with the R25000 that she needed to get the treatment done. In this time she was taken off the road as a paramedic as her immune system would not allow her to work in those conditions. Lauren fought hard and beat the cancer, getting back on the road and in full remission 6 months later.  

Unfortunately exactly 6 months after that,  she collapsed at home and as she lived alone at the time, lay on the bathroom floor for nearly 13 hours before she was found and rushed to hospital.  It was there where they discovered the cancer had spread to her liver, bone and bone marrow. She went again for more treatment and unfortunately due to the severity of the condition,  she was initially told she would only live a possible 1 to 2 years and had to give up her career of 12 years at the time,  and was medically boarded,  told she would never be able to work as a paramedic ever again.  

Lauren is a fighter,  she always has been, and in the 11 months she was medically boarded,  she fought even harder to get back up. No doubt this was an incredibly difficult time for her as she has lost both her grandparents to cancer as well as had the worst experience one can imagine, that being treating her own mother in her own ambulance who then unfortunately passed from leukemia complications. 

Just when she almost gave up, she prayed and prayed and then, what can only be a complete miracle,  Lauren was in full remission as of January 2019! She was so overwhelmed with the news, and from then spent the next 6 months working on her fitness as she was determined to get her career back. Lauren was once again employed as a road operational medic again... against all odds. Lauren was then determined to keep helping people not only her patients on a daily basis but attending a lot on Cansa events and helping with awareness and those in need on and off duty. Lauren is a perfect example of what can only be a miracle, but not only that,  she wanted to show people who are diagnosed with a terminal illness that it is possible to overcome it and since then, she has a huge amount of followers on her Facebook page "Lauren and Langerhans" of which she gets personal messages almost every day of how her story has given them hope and faith. Er24 also recorded a video and was put on YouTube, which also gained a lot of followers and again millions of personal messages sent thanking her for the hope she gave back to alot of people who were on the verge of giving up. Her story went viral and Marula Media covered her story, which led to Lauren continuing her bucket list,  but not cause she thought she was going to die,  but because she now saw life in a different way and wanted people to see life like she now did and don't wait till you diagnosed with a terminal illness to start doing everything you wanted in life. Lauren, to me is an incredible inspiration to many and has changed many people's outlook on like, and gave a lot of people hope. I believe she is a walking warrior angel and will continue to change alot of peoples lives both whilst at work and her determination off duty too.

Please assist - We need this angel just a little bit longer on earth.

Janine Steyn 

Good afternoon team,

My name is Herman Geyer, I would like to nominate somebody that could use some help from U guys.

Her name is Lauren de Swardt she is an Intermediate life support medic at ER24 Lowveld branch. 

Lauren suffers from cancer, she was in remission for quite some time but the Cancer poked its ugly head out once more, getting chemotherapy lowers her immune system and makes working in EMS very dangerous.

However there is an all natural treatment that could help her get better and enable her to work while getting treated

The amount for the treatment adds up to about R35000 for six month's treatment

Can you please help her? She is such a strong and awesome girl!

Please help her get better so that she can keep on helping others in need?

Greetings!