Home FleetWatch 2021 Let’s give Claudia the gift of ‘hope’

Let’s give Claudia the gift of ‘hope’

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Many of our readers will remember Hendrik Dieckmann, the dynamic managing director of Sachs South Africa in the days prior to the company being bought by the Mannesmann Group. Hendrik is now retired but has always been a good friend of the trucking industry – and he needs our help.

As anyone with a child will know, a daughter never stops being your ‘little girl’ – no matter what age she is. And when she’s hurting, you hurt too. In this case, Claudia, the 41 year-old daughter of Hendrik Dieckmann, is hurting.

Claudia was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in September 2011 and despite living a healthy lifestyle, taking Disease Modifying Drugs and trying to keep as active as possible, she has noticed a steady decline in her ability. If it continues as it is, she will become more and more disabled until eventually she will end up in a wheelchair.

To prevent this, Claudia is now seeking a breakthrough treatment using a Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) that will help, hopefully, to halt the progression of the disease and prevent her from being wheelchair bound.

As she explains in her profile on her crowd-funding site: “In March 2022 (next year), I will be taking up the option to have the HSCT treatment which is used for many autoimmune conditions including various types of cancer. The procedure is high risk but potentially yields great reward. The treatment does not cure MS but does claim to potentially halt the progression of MS. At the end of the day, I have decided to embark on this journey as I refuse to wait around to become more disabled. The potential for success and being able to plan for a future outside of a wheelchair is just too big to ignore.”

While hope remains strong, there is, however a problem. The family needs to raise R750 000 for the treatment and Hendrik is reaching out – through FleetWatch – for help from the industry in which he spent many years.

So far, they have managed to raise just over R300 000 from friends, ex Sachs SA staff, and past business acquaintances from all over the world. Unfortunately, contributions have slowed down and FleetWatch is now stepping in and calling on the industry to try help.

This is how. We will be running a campaign over the next few weeks asking our readers and friends to donate a nominal amount to the charity account of Claudia. It’s a crowd-funding effort where any donation – big or small – will be appreciated. And we not asking without giving back.

At the end of the campaign, FleetWatch will pull out a name from all those who have donated and the winner will not only receive a free annual subscription to FleetWatch but also a very unusual BOSCH Spark Plug donated by Hendrik .

“Hey, we run diesel trucks. What will I do with a blinking spark plug” I hear you say. But, this is a different kind of spark plug. It is actually a collector’s item and will certainly be a talking point in any pub. It is a large spark plug – in fact, it is a 34cm high bottle shaped like a BOSCH spark plug and is filled with German Kirschwasser.

“This Spark Plug bottle is an item of memorabilia from a Bosch sales campaign which I ran in 1980,” says Hendrik, who is donating it to his daughter’s cause along with a case of six bottles of Cape Red or White Wine as a second prize.

We know times are tough but I know that if one of my daughters were in Claudia’s position, I’d do everything I can to help her. And help is what we’re asking here for Claudia. Donate what you can, if you can, as every penny counts. FleetWatch will be making a donation but will obviously exclude our name from the lucky prize draw.

Let’s wrap the gift of ‘hope’ into a present for Claudia and help her get that treatment. When making a donation, please use the reference ‘FleetWatch’, your name and the last four digits of your cell phone number. By doing so, we will be able to identify the contributor in order for the name to go into the draw. If it is a company donation, please state the company name and you can use this very unusual prize as an internal company promotion for staff. It will be a winner.

You can be the winner of this unique spark plug, along with a free annual subscription of FleetWatch in our lucky draw. No, it’s not just a normal, small spark plug. Rather, it is a 34cm high bottle shaped like a BOSCH spark plug and is filled with German Kirschwasser. It is a collector’s item of memorabilia from a 1980 Bosch sales campaign run at the time by Claudia’s dad, Hendrik Dieckmann. The runner-up will win a case of either red or white wine (winners’ choice) donated by Hendrik.
You can be the winner of this unique spark plug, along with a free annual subscription of FleetWatch in our lucky draw. No, it’s not just a normal, small spark plug. Rather, it is a 34cm high bottle shaped like a BOSCH spark plug and is filled with German Kirschwasser. It is a collector’s item of memorabilia from a 1980 Bosch sales campaign run at the time by Claudia’s dad, Hendrik Dieckmann. The runner-up will win a case of either red or white wine (winners’ choice) donated by Hendrik.

The crowd-funding site can be accessed by clicking on this link below. Let’s do it. Hope is a previous gift. Let’s give that gift to Claudia and indirectly, to her dad. The treatment is scheduled for March 2022.

https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/claudia-dieckmann