{"id":2065,"date":"2019-01-14T20:11:04","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T20:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2065"},"modified":"2019-01-14T20:11:07","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T20:11:07","slug":"mystery-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2065","title":{"rendered":"MYSTERY ILLNESS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cripples brother and sister <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sashane Shakes<\/strong> – Staff Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sherriann and Courtney Irving wanted to pursue\ncareers in hospitality and engineering respectively, but their aspirations were\ndecimated by a sudden and cruel, yet unknown, illness, rendering them both\ncripples.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting on a bench beside her house, crouched over her\nwalker, her brother sitting on the chair nearby, the two (2) residents of the\nsmall community of Repasture, located in Salt Spring, St. James spoke to the Western\nMirror<\/strong> on Friday (January 11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the 2, Courtney, 24, was first to be struck by the\nillness when 5 years ago, he woke up and was unable to move his limbs freely.\nBut for Sherriann, 25, the first instance she experienced difficulties moving\nabout was after giving birth in 2016. She admitted that at the time of\nCourtney\u2019s illness, she was living in Mt. Salem, but moved to Salt Spring to\nsee through to the end of her pregnancy. It was shortly after moving here and\nafter giving birth that she began suffering from the condition. \u201cI don\u2019t know what\ncaused it. I just woke up one day and couldn\u2019t move as I used to. It\u2019s the same\nthing that happened to Courtney,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subsequent to this, Sherriann admits that it has been a\nlargely downhill battle with mixed reactions from family and relatives. \u201cMe\nremember one morning me aunty wake me up and say \u2018Sherriann, me go take you out\na di house cause you a cause problem, yuh go get pregnant,\u2019\u201d she lamented.\nSherriann gave birth to a baby boy who now lives with his grandfather because\nshe is unable to care for him in her current condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABANDONED BY FATHER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To add insult to injury, she was left homeless, living on\nthe streets for a while, until community members became aware of her situation\nand offered assistance. To rub salt into the wound, her father, who the\nsiblings harbour severe distaste for, wept when they recalled that he,\npresumably overwhelmed, disassociated himself from his children and like a\nthief in the night, took everything and left. According to the siblings and\ntheir neighbours, the elder Irving lifted the house from its foundation and\nrelocated, abandoning his children, leaving them literally homeless. \u201cThat man,\nhim just tek up the house and leave we. Him take the house and everything in\nit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With no roof over their heads, they called Food For the Poor\nunendingly, who were quick in response, providing them with a lovely flat which\nthey both share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courtney, a God-fearing individual, has vowed to remain\npositive about their situation. A Sabbath keeper, he attends the Salt Spring\nSeventh Day Adventist Church where he has been baptised for 5 years now. With\nunwavering faith, he prays often and believes that the Lord answered their\nprayers when they were gifted the house and there will be many more blessings\nto follow. \u201cI just keep praying and hold the faith. We try to do as much as we\ncan but the Lord will provide,\u201d said the humbled Courtney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MP PROVIDES WALKERS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the house, Member of Parliament for St. James\nCentral, Heroy Clarke, recently provided them with walkers to assist with ease\nof moving around the house and a donor who wishes to remain unknown, on Friday\nprovided them with a washer and dryer to help with chores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were really in dire need of assistance. We came with 2\nwalkers, one for the male and one for the female. When we came with the walker,\nour hearts broke,\u201d said Clarke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The siblings couldn\u2019t help but mention their neighbour\nAnn-Marie \u2018Chin\u2019 Douglas, who has taken on a maternal role in their lives. \u201cDem\ndon\u2019t get no care. Dem puppa run lef dem. Dem no care dem. A the community care\nthem. Neighbour; this neighbour here who can give them a plate of food, a pound\nof rice, a pound a sugar,\u201d said Chin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their aunt Sharon Hilton, who also lives in the community,\nassists by washing for them, providing them with food and caring in any other\nway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst grateful for the help, Sherriann is insistent on\nfinding out the problem with hopes of recovering from same. The Maldon High\nalum revealed that she did a scan just shy of 2 years now, the results of which\nshe did not collect due to not being able to move about or having anyone to\npick them up for her at the time. She soon forgot about same as survival became\ntop priority given that some family members had abandoned her and her brother.\nBut she\u2019s ready to pick up where she left off by finding out the problem that\nhas been plaguing them for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After listening to their cry for help, Clarke spoke with Dr.\nDelroy Fray, from Living Waters Medical Centre, who has made arrangements to\nvisit the siblings today to investigate further into this medical mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chin is pleading for assistance for her neighbours, she now\nsees as her own children. \u201cThey can\u2019t help themself. Anyone a dem drop you\nhaffi pass fi tek them up. Dem cannot tek up demself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The siblings, who were recently in a video, now viral on\nsocial media, have landed an international reach with persons as far as England\nreaching out to assist. \u201cWe\u2019re appealing to the public to make a donation\nbecause they too have to live and they\u2019re unable to work. No amount of appeal\ncan be enough,\u201d implored Clarke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI don\u2019t know what caused it. I just woke up one day and couldn\u2019t move as I used to. It\u2019s the same thing that happened to Courtney,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[1063,1066,1068,1069,1067,592,1065,1064,30],"class_list":["post-2065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-feature","category-news","tag-brother","tag-chin","tag-heroy-clarke","tag-humanitarian","tag-living-waters-medical-centre","tag-member-of-parliament","tag-mystery-illness","tag-sister","tag-western-jamaica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2065"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2068,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065\/revisions\/2068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}