Conrad's Urgent Spinal Surgery Fund

For more than 20 years, my son Conrad helped other people walk. Today he can barely stand.

I am Arina Venter. I am 80 years old, and this is one of the hardest things I have ever had to write.

The man who gave others their first steps

Conrad is an orthotist and prosthetist. For over two decades he fitted braces and artificial limbs for people whose mobility had been taken by injury, illness, amputation or disability, then walked beside them to help regain their confidence and rebuild their independence.

He started in South Africa's public healthcare system and spent nearly 20 years at a state hospital in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, where he became a department supervisor, a university lecturer and a board member of Orthotics Prosthetics Canada.

Helping people walk was never just a job to him. It was his purpose.

Now he is the one who cannot stand

Two of Conrad's spinal discs have collapsed. A third is failing. His spinal cord and nerves are compressed in several places, leaving him with burning n...