From life-threatening illness to magical music

Lebohang Mosia

At the age of 16, Reach For A Dream realised Bronté Borcherds’s desire by taking her to Sony Studios where she produced a song with award-winning musician and broadcaster Loyiso Bala.

BRONTÉ Borcherds is 9 years old and her playground is the entire world.

Laughter fills the air as she hopscotches with her buddies and sings a cappella in the living room to her family.

That year, three words ruined her life, her future, and the lives of her entire family: auto-immune hepatitis. A difficult task was ahead of her little tenacious feet.

Life had changed. Borcherds complained of fatigue, nausea, bloating, and stomach pain. Her immune system was assaulting and inflaming her liver. If not treated, she might suffer from liver failure.

Her treatment advanced swiftly, and her family from Johannesburg relocated to Cape Town, where she underwent a liver transplant and specialised care at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.

Borcherds, now 30, expressed her appreciation for her family, particularly her courageous younger brother.

She commended the collective effort of healthcare professionals, hospital personnel, and fellow child warriors suffering lifethreatening conditions for their support during her darkest hours.

Being in hospital for weeks or even months at a time, as well as the continuous pricks of needles and dialysis, took their toll.

But Borcherds reminisced fondly about how music became a lifeline: “Music was always there. Even when my hands were too sore from swopping drips to use my phone, I had my favourite songs to keep me company,” she explained.

Something life-changing happened when she was 16 years old. She met a Reach For A Dream representative, and the question that changed everything was, “What is the dream in your heart?”

For the past 35 years, the Reach For A Dream team has asked this question to children with lifethreatening illnesses. With the organisation fulfilling around six wishes throughout the country every day, its crew has seen firsthand the immense stress that children with life-threatening illnesses face.

These wonderful moments provide these children and their families with crucial relief from the daily difficulties connected with illness.

But, more than anything else, what truly distinguishes this experience is how fulfilled aspirations instil much-needed confidence and hope in these children, allowing them to think

the tomorrow is worth fighting for, according to Julia Sotirianakos, CEO of Reach For A Dream.

Borcherds felt supported by the foundation. “Meeting the team at Reach For A Dream and other dreamers made me realise I wasn’t alone in the world. There’s always a helping hand should you ask for it and people who know your struggle,” she said.

Borcherds’s ambition was to go to a recording studio and create her own music. However, the foundation went above and beyond to make her dream a reality. She had the red carpet set out for her special day, and a limousine took her and her best friend to Sony Studios.

Reach For A Dream not only makes a child’s desire come true, but also attempts to instill hope in the child’s life.

In the circumstance of Borcherds, her dream success rekindled a fresh passion and vitality that would ultimately transform the rest of her life.

“When I got my dream, I met someone who has made it in the music industry.

“It’s amazing because I saw that it’s a real thing – not just something that is far away and happens to other people.

“To have it right here was a toptier moment for me because I saw that I could do it too,” explained Borcherds in an official statement.

“When I got to the studio, I saw Loyiso Bala and my mind was blown,” she said excitedly .

BRONTÉ Borcherds. | SUPPLIED

“I felt like I was in a movie. I literally sang with this famous singer and thought ‘this is crazy’.”

Borcherds is still a dedicated advocate of the charitable work and is the motivation and voice behind Step Up, the theme song for the Slipper Shuffle, a nationwide choreography challenge intended to encourage South Africans on the dance floor and into their comfy slippers in support of Reach For A Dream’s largest annual fund-raiser, Slipper Day.

“Step Up is about believing that your goals and dreams are attainable; that even on your worst days, there is light at the end of the tunnel,” Borcherds said.

“Ultimately, it’s a song about hope, and it encourages everyone to use the power of their dreams to overcome obstacles.”