A Lion's Heart

Lorraine was my sister. Cardiomyopathy took her. We flew her to South Africa, hoping the doctors there could save her, and we lost her anyway.

Then it became clear that my younger brother, Madalo, could be next. So I adopted him and brought him to Canada, where doctors could look at his heart. They found that he carried the same gene. They also found a ticking time bomb.

When his heart finally gave out, he had open-heart surgery in February 2020 at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute in Edmonton. The surgery was for an LVAD, a pump that did the work his own heart couldn't. It kept him alive for four years and four months.

In June 2024, he received a heart transplant.

Through all of it, the hospital days, the waiting, and the not knowing, Madalo stayed strong and positive, with God on his side. He is the proverbial lion. He never stopped. He graduated, built a community online, and now goes by DaloKingHeart2.0, because he got a second heart and he's living like it.

I couldn't save Lorraine. Research, doctors, and donors are the reason I still have Madalo.

This year I'm walking in the 2026 Houston Heart Walk for both of them. Every dollar funds the research that gave my brother his second chance and might give another family theirs.