Farewell to Cape Kidney Association

Marlene Anne Fabe (Molly), Wynberg

I joined the Cape Kidney Association on January 6 2000 in the capacity as a half day fund-raiser, 24 years ago.

At the time of joining I had very little experience except the knowledge I acquired through being a member of the International Lions Club of Kirstenbosch, a charity where fundraising was very active as our motto is “we serve”.

I took the challenge since I saw the need for the assistance to raise much needed funds for indigent kidney patients at the provincial hospitals in the Western Cape.

At the time of joining we were also supporting the Renal Unit in Vredenburg as well as Hermanus. I enjoyed the challenges from raising funds at golf days, dances, theatre shows, World Kidney Day 5km Fun Walk annually. Attending wellness days, creating awareness in shopping centres, doing presentations to youth groups, church groups, seniors groups, and the list is endless.

I won many awards in the capacity as executive fund manager with the CEO Global Group twice and the last one was when I received the recognition for the CEO Pan African Award up in Johannesburg one of only seven of these awards annually.

I was also a nominee for “Woman of Stature”. I receive the recognition as “Champion” for South Africa for the World Kidney Organization in Brussels. I also received the award on behalf of Cape Kidney Association for the work I did in the community for the City of Cape Town. I will treasure these awards for years to come.

I rose from the initial start at Cape Kidney as the part time fund-raiser, to the executive fund manager and later as the director of the organisation.

Sadly when Covid-19 lockdown happened it affected our organisation badly since we raised our funds through fund-raising events and donations.

We could not carry out our usual fund-raising events and slowly our funds we starting to deplete. By the time we were able to return to work again it had affected us quite badly, and at the end of July both our office administrator and myself were retrenched. That was a very sad day in my life as that was not what I expected, although I saw the writing on the wall.

I continued working on a voluntary basis remotely since we had to close the office, however, at the end of October 2023 I resigned as the director.

The reason for this letter is to thank everyone who became part of my life at the Cape Kidney Association. Family, friends colleagues, associates, etc, your contribution towards not only the association but recognising me as the household name in Cape Kidney Association.

Yes, I miss my involvement in the association as I truly made many friends, but sadly I am now left with no work, except memories and photographs.