The plight of a Table View teen in his fight against cancer will take centre stage over the weekend during the release of a music video featuring Rheed Castle-Pearce.
Rheed is a Grade 7 learner at Elkanah House and is a brave young man embarking on the biggest challenge and fight he will ever have to face in his life – cancer.
After struggling with what he thought was a groin strain from cricket, he developed a limp and had a pain in his hip that would not go away. He was in excruciating pain after a fall at school and x-rays revealed a tumour in his pelvic region. This had weakened the bone and left it very porous and in the fall he had actually fractured the hip bone. After five weeks in traction at a local hospital, two biopsies revealed what every mother dreads.
Rheed had been diagnosed with Ostea-Sarcoma-bone cancer. Osteo Sarcoma is the most common kind of bone cancer in children and teenagers. It occurs when the cells that grow new bone form a cancerous tumour and the treatment for it is chemotherapy and surgery. Rheed has already started chemotherapy to destroy as much of the cancer cells before he has surgery to remove the tumour and “bad” bone which will be replaced with a prosthetic hip.
For the music video Claire Bransgrove came together with award winning director Desmond Denton from Imagenheart films, to bring together a music video that can showcase the cause and assist in helping Rheed’s family to raise the money for this procedure.
Desmond and Claire worked on the concept of a dire future. From experience of the film Spelonk, Desmond drew inspiration and decided to do an apocalyptic future state. The music video features various wardrobes and props from the Spelonk TV series. The theme worked strongly for the cause in that the song repeats the words “Don’t Give Up” throughout.
In this apocalyptic desperate state the prisoners still finds a sense of hope, fighting their way out. It seems to be hopeless but the human spirit triumphs. It has became a symbol of Rheed’s journey, his fight against cancer.
The music video included choreographed dance sequences, various vocalists and a large team of creatives who came together from 04:00 in the morning to film this music video.
Rheed was also filmed doing the rap solo in the music video.
See poster for more information.
