Pretty crafty describes sisterly love

It is going to cost thousands of dollars for Kaitlyn Thake’s sister to get her next bout of surgery in Australia and family comes first, so she is adding to the fundraising effort by creating her own crafts to sell.

This Sunday, Kaitlyn will join other stalls at the Pretty Crafty Easter Market (Easter in the name, but not the day this year) with her resin key rings and bookmarks filled with flowers and shells, to raise more money for a sister she considers her best friend.

Her sister, Danielle, has lipoedema disease which is a chronic inflammatory fat disease. It means fat in her body gets inflamed and becomes hard as concrete, which is heavy and painful. She tells her family it is like walking with concrete in her legs and it is the same in her arms and abdomen, making every task exhausting and difficult, while raising her seven-year-old daughter as a solo parent. Even sitting is painful.

When Danielle could not get help or funding in New Zealand, the family looked afield and so far, she has had one bout of surgery in Australia that used a water-based extraction method to remove the concrete-like fat from her lower legs.
Her next surgery in Australia, when the family raises the $23,000 needed, will remove the weight from her thighs.

To remove all of the painful fat in different parts of the body will cost about $100,000 and that is the ultimate goal for the family.

In the meantime, fundraising has been continuous, including a Givealittle page and a bingo night as well as club day fundraiser at the Waimea Old Boys Rugby Club where Danielle’s mother, Wendy, has worked as a cleaner for 23 years.

Last year, Kaitlyn, who is working as a relief teacher in primary schools rather than full time, so that she has more time to help her sister, began making key chains and bookmarks to add to the surgery funds.

Making the crafts has not only added more money into the fund, but it has helped Kaitlyn cope with the stress of watching what her sister goes through.

“She’s my best friend and I think the world of her. I want to switch places with her because it’s so hard watching her. But she never complains and is so strong willed.

“She just says ‘it’s just what I have to go through and have to deal with it’.

“People don’t understand the physical and psychological stuff she goes through.”

Kaitlyn’s stall at the Pretty Crafty Easter Market this Sunday will be one of 25 stalls in the Richmond Town Hall.

The market runs between 10am and 2pm, with a gold coin koha that goes to Hearing Nelson. More about the market can be found here.