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After tragically losing their friend, Joshua Galant, who died in September last year at the age of 15, a group of friends from Jeugkamp in Humansdorp embarked on a toy drive to donate a variety of toys to children in need in his honour.
Galant’s mother, Miriam, said her late son, who was a Grade 8 learner at Nico Malan High School, initially began complaining about having a headache on August 28, which continued the following day.
She said that over the two days he received pain medication to help relieve his headache, and since she initially thought he was coming down with a cold, she gave him cold and flu medication as well.
Miriam said that despite being in pain, Galant, who was the youngest of her three sons, loved playing outdoors with his friends and insisted that he was feeling good enough to play.
She said that on August 30 she took him to the local clinic, and once he was seen to by the nurse on duty she quickly realised that the situation was much more severe than she had initially thought, with various medical staff rushing to examine him.
“I was so concerned when I saw so many doctors and nurses around him,” said Miriam.
She further said that moments later an ambulance arrived and rushed him to the Humansdorp Provincial Hospital, where he was immediately taken to the Intensive Care Unit.
Miriam said that after running some tests, on September 1, the tests revealed that Galant had bacterial meningitis, and as a result his brain was swollen.
She said that even though her son could speak, he was in extreme pain.
Miriam said that his health continued to deteriorate, and by September 2 hewas transferred to Livingstone Hospital in Gqeberha, where his doctor shared the shocking news that Galant had kidney failure and that he no longer had any brain function.
“Joshua was put on life support and the doctor said that I could switch off the machine when I was ready, but I wanted to keep the machine on,” said Miriam.
Sadly, Galant passed away on September 4.
“Everything happened so quickly and so suddenly. I cry every day because I miss my baby,” said Miriam.
She said that Galant had a large funeral where learners from his school were dressed neatly in their school blazers while they walked alongside his coffin.
Miriam said that her son loved playing rugby with his friends after school, and he was the peacekeeper among them all.
“Joshua always encouraged his friends to be respectful and speak correctly to one another while playing together,” said Miriam.
Despite always being surrounded by friends at school and at home, she said that it was only after his death that she realised just how many friends he had.
Miriam said that after his funeral a group of his friends wanted to do something special in his honour and decided to establish the Joshua Toy Box project where they filled a box with their toys.
Once the box was filled, she handed over the toys to a daycare of her choice.
As part of their first toy drive which took place in December last year, Miriam said that she donated the toys to Angels Daycare Centre in Humansdorp, the daycare where Galant spent his time learning and playing, before heading to Kruisfontein Primary School.
To keep his name alive she said his friends plan to fill a box with toys twice a year, one on his birthday, July 18, and during the December Christmas period.
Miriam said that his friends plan to do special toy donation drives during their own birthdays, which they will use to add to the toy box.
“Even though I handed over the first box to Angels Daycare Centre, I plan to hand over toys to many more daycares in the area,” said Miriam.
One of Galant’s friends who have been contributing to the toy box drive, Caleb Williams (12), said that he was very sad that he could no longer play rugby with Galant or play with their toy cars together.
“I used to play with Joshua every day after school and it has not been the same without him. I am heart sore because I miss him,” said Williams.
He said that he had mixed feelings when he placed some of his toys in the toy box.
He said that he added some of Galant’s favourite toys into the box, which included toy cars and balls, among other toys.
Emmanuel Potgieter (12) said that he too enjoyed playing rugby with Galant, and since they stayed in the same neighbourhood they met up at an empty plot each day after school where they had enough space to play their favourite sport.
He said that after his friend’s passing a group of mutual friends that he shared with Galant felt the need to give back and do something special in his honour.
“I felt a bit better after I was able to do something nice for Joshua through the toy box project,” said Potgieter.
He said that during their first toy box initiative they mainly donated their own toys, but for the next project they plan to ask people to consider donating to their worthy cause.
“I pray that we will be able to get more toys for our next project and that we will have a larger variety of toys to donate,” said Potgieter.
For more information or to donate to the toy box initiative, email Miriam Galant on miriamgalant9@gmail.com.
