Police raise funds to help sick Farm Heights boy

When The STAR published a story highlighting the plight of Renae Foster, whose son was given six months to live in March, it touched the heart of Sergeant Richard McPherson.

The 16-year veteran of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) sprang into action and rallied his colleagues to come to the help of the child. McPherson said that he and other members at the National Police College of Jamaica held a fund-raising concert for the child on May 4.

"We made $400,000 and transferred it to the mother's account," the cop said.

Foster and her six-year-old son, Dre Morris, are from Farm Heights in St James. The boy was diagnosed with Aplastic Anaemia in January, a condition that develops when the bone marrow is damaged, slowing or shutting down the production of new blood cells. Aplastic anemia leaves persons feeling fatigued and with a higher risk of infections and uncontrolled bleeding.

McPherson said that the push to raise funds to assist young Dre Morris was fuelled by his passion to help others as well as a determination by the cops to demonstrate that the force is not filled with bad people.

"I am a sergeant of police and I have been training at the National Police Academy from 2007, on and off. We have a mandate where there are three particular things that we pay attention to which is skills, knowledge and attitude. Notwithstanding how terrible some of the policemen behave when they go on the road, we really try to be all-inclusive in our teaching," McPherson said.

"We can only adequately treat with skills and knowledge but for the attitude it really needed something practical. Police officers can actually engage with the community to help them and develop that genuine care for persons to whom they swore to protect and serve," he added.

In the meantime, Foster told The STAR that several persons reached out to her after the story was published in The STAR. She expressed gratitude to the cops and other donors whose contribution helped her son to travel to the National Institute of Health in Maryland in the United States.

"Dre gone from May 21, but mi still scarred because it not over yet. He was supposed to be getting treatment but they are saying that they want a donor for him ASAP, because they need a back-up plan if the treatment doesn't work," Foster said.

Before being sent overseas, Dre Morris was hospitalised at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James. His mother said that she had to be constantly reassuring him that he is not going to die.

"I am very optimistic that he will be OK because God is good and I don't think he will allow my baby to be taken away from me. He is going to have a very long life," she said in March.