Here on 7NEWS we've reported our share of disturbing stories, but tonight this one might well take the cake. On Thursday Claudette Haylock appeared on KREM Radio's W-U-B morning show to solicit donations so her 2 year old daughter can fly to Richmond Virigina to undergo a life saving surgical procedure. Her daughter Errollynn Tillet was born with Hirsch-sprung - a condition where her intestine is actually outside the body. On Thursday Haylock managed to raise about $1,800. By Friday morning she had collected $1,500 from the pledges and she was heading to the bank when she came face to face with a man armed with a gun. The clincher is how the heartless gunman approached her.
Claudette Haylock - Mother
"He approached me and he said he recognize you from the Wake Up Belize morning show and I said that I was on yesterday. He said okay and he asked if I was being successful and I asked why. He asked if I collected the money and he told me to hand it over. At first I hesitated but then when I saw the gun, I gave him the money because after all it is not worth losing my life over $1,500. This money was go towards Errollynn's surgery but it is only $1,500 and I have other children so I didn't hesitate and I gave him the money.
We were trying to raise some money for Errollynn. Errollynn had been accepted in Richmond Virginia by the International Hospital for Children. She was diagnosed at birth with a diseased called Hirschsprung and they had to take the intestine out. So she took two surgeries in Belize. She was supposed to leave from February but we didn't raise all the money we needed. So they gave us up until the 12th which is Monday."
Keith Swift,
With that money you raised, would you have had enough to leave?
Claudette Haylock,
"Well with that money that they took, it wasn't enough because we needed $4,100 and that was only about $1,600 so we would still have been about $2,100 short. It would have helped. It put us even deeper back into the hole because we needed $4,100 and now we need more."
Haylock says she has started from scratch again. She needs $4,000. If you can help she can be reached at telephone numbers 621-1074 or 620-4217. You can also deposit donations into Belize Bank account number 229-529.
