Martial arts training gives kids strength to fight cancer

JORDAN MOSHE

Kids Kicking Cancer was officially launched in South Africa on Tuesday morning at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Parktown, Johannesburg.

Already over the past few months, skilled black belt martial artists have developed unique relationships with children facing life threatening illnesses in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Together, they have learned how to confront challenge and difficulty with perseverance and strength.

A practitioner of martial arts for 24 years, Sensei Sue Da Col signed up to be part of the first intake of volunteers in September last year, determined to bring some comfort to those in pain. After the initial preparation, she recalls her first visit to Baragwanath. “The thought of meeting the children petrified me,” she says. “I didn’t know what to expect, and I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to help them.”

But once she witnessed how they reacted to the training, and the hope it gave them, her fears dissipated. “I saw a spark of light in them, and all my fears left me. All I wanted to do was to be there with them, tell them that they’re not alone.

“What I found were warriors, souls who believe in their strength and capabilities. I realised that they can teach all of us what it’s like to be strong, even at an age when you shouldn’t experience pain and fear.”

Da Col considers herself privileged to be involved. “These kids are our heroes,” she says. “They can teach the world. When I walk out of there, I know they have taught me to be brave and strong. Their resilience is incredible, and they overwhelm me constantly.”

Cathy Pinnock feels just as strongly. A black belt in karate, Pinnock says that she has been looking for a way to give her black belt meaning, and this opportunity appears to have found her. “I’m interested in the idea of teaching people to help themselves,” she says. “This organisation hinges on teaching children to find the inner strength to deal with their difficulties, and eventually teaching others how to do the same.”

As a child, Pinnock’s mother – who is a nurse – worked in a leukaemia ward. “I often went with my mother to the ward,” says Pinnock, “and I remember feeling terribly powerless. I could do nothing to help all these people who were in such pain.

“This opportunity gives a sense of being able to help someone I could never help,” she says. “To help children after all these years with the idea that they may be able to pass it on to someone else in turn, is remarkable.”

Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg, the programme founder and Clinical Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at Wayne State University of Detroit, said at the launch that not only volunteers, but the entire world could learn from children fighting illness.

“There’s tremendous darkness in the world,” he said, “but no matter what we face in our lives, we can bring into it an amazing energy, and push out pain and stress. These children teach with so much power,” he said of the children assembled in front of him at the launch. “They truly are world-class teachers.”

The children demonstrated their karate prowess, and taught the audience how to implement the vital words by which they live: peace, power, purpose.

Goldberg explained that this could be achieved only if one breathed in light and let out the darkness within, a fundamental tenet without which no martial art fighting technique is complete.

“We know today that if you don’t have a purpose, are not at peace, are depressed or anxious, your pain is greater,” he said. “If you can expel them, you can combat your pain.”

Goldberg stressed the significance of the choice of venue for the launch. “Mandela is a global treasure,” he said, “What he taught will resonate many years into the future. You can incarcerate the body, but you can’t incarcerate the soul. That is power, peace and purpose.”

He continued: “The greatest beauty in South Africa lies in the people I’ve seen here while standing at bedsides in children’s hospitals. When you see their smiles, I am convinced that with the power of the children of South Africa, we will illuminate the entire planet.

“It doesn’t matter their colour, religion or race – none of that means anything. When you see the light of these children, you can see that they can teach the world that no matter what we face in our lives, we can find the light.”

He concluded, “Pain is a message you don’t have to listen to. When you reach the power of the soul, nothing can stop you. It can change you from victim to victor. No matter what you face in your life, breathe in the light and blow out the darkness.”