If you live in South Africa you will already know who Nathan Miles is, If you don't live in South Africa, read on.
This morning around 07:10 I had to apply my make-up and re-apply and re-apply. Why? Because Darren Simpson from 947. Highveld stereo had Nathan Miles on the show, a wonderful strong young man who will teach you all to appreciate what you have in life.
Darren Simpson received this email from Nathan's sister about a week ago, and thanks to this email a whole lot of us will take everything that happens to us today, because of this email and this young man. The hearts of South Africans are warm today.
This morning around 07:10 I had to apply my make-up and re-apply and re-apply. Why? Because Darren Simpson from 947. Highveld stereo had Nathan Miles on the show, a wonderful strong young man who will teach you all to appreciate what you have in life.
Darren Simpson received this email from Nathan's sister about a week ago, and thanks to this email a whole lot of us will take everything that happens to us today, because of this email and this young man. The hearts of South Africans are warm today.
He was born on the 3rd of July 1991 in the Glynwood Hospital. My mom had a normal pregnancy with my brother and everything was fine until the day he was due to come out and my mom was going to do natural birth. My mom went into labour with 3 other ladies to which the doctor gave my mom an epidural and turned down her contractions so she couldn’t feel anything. My brother then moved into the birth canal and lay there and my mom was unaware of this due to the fact that the doctor had turned down her contractions so she couldn’t feel anything.
We obviously only realised this when he was about 7 months old and started missing his milestones. We then started with treatments such as hyper baric oxygen therapy, which was really ideal in this country because we do not have the equipment to ensure that it can be done efficiently. When my brother was about 7 years of age him and my father went to England to go and do an intense course of hyper baric oxygen therapy, when he left for England he couldn’t walk at all and when he came back 3 weeks later he took his first steps to my mom at the airport.
And I guess that’s where the journey really began, the doctor had originally told us that he would never walk or talk and now to this day he is walking and even running 5km fun runs and did tumbling.
In 2009 he was diagnosed with epilepsy, he suffers from about 30-40 brain fits a day, he doesn’t have full on convulsions, but he has brain seizures. At this point we thought what more could we really go through, but took the bull by the horns and carried on.
In about April of this year we had realised that there was something wrong with his neck and chest and he had been complaining of pain. On the 12th of April 2015 we took him to the Linmed Emergency rooms and the doctor on duty did an X-Ray and said it was just a muscular injury and prescribed pain killers and anti-inflammatory’s for him. By Monday the 13th of April 2015 the condition had worsened drastically so my mom then took him to our local general doctor who then ordered a sonar to be done. When he received the results from the sonar he wasn’t happy with the inflammation in the lymph nodes in the neck and sent us for a second opinion.
We then saw a specialised surgeon and he said it was probably just an infection so he treated for an infection. 10 days later there was no change and no progress, so he called my mom and brother back in and told them that he is now going to start treating for cancer and was going to be doing a biopsy the following day. He had also done a g-scope and picked up that he had a 3 ½ cm tear in his stomach which was what was causing the pain in his stomach area and had put him on a special diet for the hernia.
The following week the doctor called my mom, dad and brother in to give them the results of the biopsy. This was nothing than what we expected. He had been diagnosed with stage 3 cancer but they were unable to locate the source but they had reassured us that that origin of the cancer was not in the lymph nodes. From there we would need to see an oncologist.
We saw the oncologist 2 weeks later, who to cut a long story short was really no help at all, so on the 24th of June 2015 we went for a second opinion and that was when our worlds came crashing down. She notified us that he only has a maximum of 6 months to a year left to live. There was NO cure, she could do chemo but it would not be a cure it would simply prolong the inevitable. The chemo she would be doing was an extremely high dose chemo and would make him extremely ill and we have decided against this because we don’t want to make his last bit here with us an unbearable time because he will be so ill.
Between the 24th of June and now he has deteriorated at a rapid rate and is actually quite scary to see. Going from being able to do most things on his own to becoming completely reliant on someone in the space of 2 weeks. He is now in a wheel chair to make it easier for him to be more mobile. He is on a constant dose of Morphine every 4 hours to try and manage the pain. All he does now is sleep and cry from pain. He barely eats anymore because it is simply too painful to swallow food.
Before he got ill he was assisting at a private Sports Car Museum on a Tuesday and Thursday and is now too weak to even get out of bed to be able to come to the kitchen. He has a passion for cars whether it the new ones or the olds ones, he loves them all. He absolutely loves his music and loves drawing. He is currently writing a book about his life and what he can remember and the sad part is that he is unable to do all these things because he is too weak to get out of bed and enjoy these small things that he finds pleasure in doing.
947 and the people from South Africa, are doing their very best to help Nathan complete everything on his bucket list. If you feel that you can assist in any way, please do not hesitate. This young man deserves every blessing that he can get. This is Nathan's bucket list:
To his mother, you are a strong woman beyond believe, the things you do, the things you've been through can not be easy. Not for any one. I would like to take my hat of to you a powerful woman with more strength than any one I've met.
This story has touched my heart in a 100 different ways, and today I am thankful for what I have.
This story has touched my heart in a 100 different ways, and today I am thankful for what I have.