“None sing hymns to breath… But, oh, to be without it!” Yama from Roger Zelazny‘s Lord Of Light

Have you ever been on a Nebuliser? It helps you breathe, but it makes you feel like the world is closing in on you… Imagine using a nebuliser for 11 times in one day? That’s what happened with soon-to-be one year old Daniel Best, part of his treatment to enable him to breathe was steroids at 3 months of age, this affected his girth and size as he gets older and many Bajans simply judge and speak harshly before getting the facts, as usual…

Daniel’s life has been anything but a cake-walk, and his mother also faces challenges which should not exist in a new life now learning how to handle this planet.

Sagicor, in a moment of charity Daniel’s insurer, pulled the policy on learning he may have Cystic Fibrosis, which makes his road only tougher, as we learn from his mother Tanya;-

“He was in hospital November, December and January. Then in-between there I was at the hospital every single week in the asthma bay until May.”

Tanya, who had to give up her job to care for her son, is anxious to get a conclusive diagnosis – but it can’t be made here.

Testing is very expensive, and things which regular children take for granted are needed in such amounts that shopping, in a Barbados now laid waste by repeated savagings from Chris Sinckler‘s alleged Budgets, equals a Herculean task in and of itself!

She knows asking for assistance these days is a brave and large task as everybody hurts one way or another at the same time, but she’s determined her child reaches adulthood – but $50,000 is just the first step in the journey of at least a thousand more;-

The 34-year-old Best, of Kendal Hill, Christ Church, is the mother of three – Arianna, six, Nathan, four and 11-month-old Daniel, who may have an incurable disease.

Daniel is an energetic, inquisitive boy whose only physical indication that something may be wrong is his size.

He weighs 30 pounds and, at first glance, simply looks overweight. It is because of this that Best said she often found herself at the receiving end of some verbal abuse.

For more intelligent and less judgmental Barbadians who wish to lend a hand, there is an account for Daniel at Scotiabank (known for many charitable events), whose account number of #1010356 and the Branch Transit is #40055