“We ultimately have choices. We can allow ourselves to become immobilised by a sense of hopelessness, or somehow draw on our inner strength and provide support to those who are sadly travelling the road that we’ve already travelled.”
So said Mervyn Serebro, the winner of the Bertie Lubner Humanitarian Award in honour of Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris for the organisation he chairs, Reach for a Dream.
Serebro joined Reach for a Dream after losing two of his own children. He chose to dedicate his life to fulfilling the dreams of those with life-threatening illnesses, and the organisation has helped foster his own healing.
Having lost one child to cot death and another to acute myeloid leukaemia, the Reach for a Dream chairperson has walked an unimaginable path. “The loss of a child is permanent. It’s not something that improves with time, you find a place for it in your head and heart,” Serebro said. He has been driven to enhance the lives of others by creating the South African Bone Marrow Registry and chairing Reach for a Dream.
“I’m passionate about ensuring that every child who is experiencing a life-threatening situation has the privilege of meeting our team, requesting the unimaginable, and having us make it happen,” he said. “We’ve never not fulfilled a dream. There’s nothing more rewarding than helping a family to believe that there is, indeed, the possibility of recovery and that instilling hope in a child is an integral component of healing.”
Serebro and the Reach for a Dream team have witnessed miracles, including a young man who had lost the ability to walk, whose dream was to go to Disney. “He went to Disney. He began to walk very slowly with interventive support. He’s now fully recovered.”
He also shared the story of a young boy who was on four-hourly morphine injections. Yet, he met his hero, Formula One legend Lewis Hamilton, who promised to win for him. “And he did. They put his wheelchair on the podium, and Hamilton walked over to this young man and put the cup in his hands. He died a few months later.”
In accepting the award, Serebro paid tribute to “exceptional” Reach for a Dream Chief Executive Julia Sotirianakos, his beloved wife and children, and his late son, Darren. “You were taken from us in the spring of your season,” he said. “I sense your presence this evening, and I know that you will be so proud of what we continue to do in your memory.”
Serebro said that accepting an award named for the late Bertie Lubner was an honour. “His passion and generosity of spirit honestly knew no bounds, not only within our community but universally. There was this aura of goodness, menschkeid that was just a part of him.
“To be acknowledged by our own community is truly the most indescribable moment in my own journey,” Serebro said.
