Young star Morne van Rensburg has seen his promising career come to a sudden halt after being diagnosed with leukaemia, but this has not quelled his fighting spirit.

Van Rensburg, who attended Glenwood High and represented KwaZulu-Natal at the U18 Craven Week, has been part the Sharks academy since 2018 where he has also been studying towards a degree in sports management.

He played for the Sharks U19s in 2018 and was also playing for the Collegians Rugby Club U20 team before he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in October 2019.

After undergoing an intense week of chemotherapy and spending a month in hospital, Van Rensburg went into remission and thereafter received follow-up treatments.

However, during what was meant to be his final chemotherapy session in February this year, a biopsy showed a relapse of the disease, while he also got the news that doctors had discovered a mutation in his bone marrow.

While Van Rensburg’s brother, Ruan, has tested positive as a stem cell match, he still needs a drug to treat the bone marrow mutation so he can have a stem cell transplant. The drug has been approved in South Africa – but is not yet freely available – which means that it has to be sourced from another country, all the more difficult due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

To date, the Van Rensburg family has yet to get ahold of the drug, but report that Morne is battling hard against the disease.

‘As a family, we are overwhelmed by the amazing gestures and warm hearts of people all over our province, country and, in fact, the whole world,’ the Van Rensburgs said. ‘It touched our hearts to see that Morne has so much support behind him. He is truly blessed.’

If you would like to make a contribution to Morne’s cause, please find bank details below: