#WeCare: Cop couple cash-strapped after triple blessing

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Cape Town - This cop couple from Gordon’s Bay received a triple blessing on 16 June. And first-time parents, Wesley and Chantel McDonald, say while they are the proud parents of Malakai, Mikail and Isabella Grace, their police salaries have not grown with their family. Chantel, a police administrator, and Wesley, a police officer, both work at the Somerset West Police Station. They’ve been married for seven years, and while Chantel says the plan was to have just one, Wesley pipes up and says he “prayed for twins”. “I always tell people God answered both our prayers,” he jokes.

Chantel says she was ecstatic when she found out she was pregnant on 26 December.

“In January we were told it’s triplets, and I immediately started crying. I felt so overwhelmed, as neither of us has a family history of triplets.”

The pregnancy was difficult and Chantel spent eight weeks in different hospitals.

She was very swollen and kept having contractions.

On 16 June, at 31 weeks, she was rushed into theatre at Vergelegen MediClinic for an emergency C-section and Isabella Grace (1.2kg), Malakai (1kg) and Mikail (960g) were safely delivered.

The babies are now home.





The babies received blood transfusions due to low haemoglobin levels, and Isabella Grace had also picked up an infection.

However, on Saturday, after eight weeks in hospital, the triplets were discharged and are now home.

Wesley says the magnitude of the financial strain hit him when he went to buy nappies for the first time.

“I bought a lot of packs and was told it’s only enough for two weeks. We were prepared to take care of one baby, not three,” he says.

On top of that, they took out a loan to renovate their home, but the contractor has now allegedly disappeared with the money without doing any work.

They couple say they desperately need nappies and clothing for their triplets.

They’ve received donations of cribs and car seats, but Wesley says he will need to sell his VW Polo hatchback to buy a family sedan.

“Whatever else happens, our babies are home and healthy and this was my first and last pregnancy,” Chantal vows.

If you would like to help the family, please contact Wesley on 083 267 6744.

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