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Walk for ‘Buy a Smile’
Published on: Sunday, July 21, 2024
By: Kan Yaw Chong
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Founders of ‘Buy A Smile’, Neil and Lynette, with some of the children who benefitted from the programme.
Historian Lynette Silver, author of “Sandakan – A Conspiracy of Silence”, recalled her shock.
Discovering that the family did not have the means to pay for an operation, the Silvers decided to sponsor the child to undergo surgery, with the help of Likas Bay Rotary Club in Kota Kinabalu and philanthropic plastic surgeons.
The results were immediate and outstanding, Lynette remembers.
On learning that there were many other children who need help, the Silvers set up a programme, “Buy a Smile”, inviting Australians with a connection to Sabah to assist those less fortunate than themselves.
By the end of 2022, with the help of Likas Bay Rotary Club, contributors to the programme had bought smiles for more than scores of children, changing their lives forever, she said.
“Since we found our first child in a plantation near Telupid, Neil and I have personally contributed and raised sufficient money to fund 85 operations since 2015,” she told Daily Express.
“So we had been hard at it for nine years, but no operations were done in Covid years.
Neil and Lynette’s past Death March walking group.
“Those children were otherwise doomed to a miserable life.”
“Although we are the recipients of humanitarian awards for our work, we are able to do this because of excellent ground team in Sabah, including Rotary at Likas Bay, which organises the operations and large donations from generous people here, mainly Australians who have been trekking with us in Sabah, or have visited with us for Anzac Day,” Lynette reported.
Magic impact of ‘before & after’ pictures
“The project strikes a chord with people. Our donors and supporters are kept abreast of the project via my News from Borneo bulletins.”
“Photographs of before and after always result in a flurry of donations from people wanting to help,” according to her.
“Recent news that our first child has now married and has a perfect baby generated even more donations, from people happy to share such good news,” she said.
“In the past, when funds ran low or demand for operations was high, individuals have come to the rescue with one couple donating tens of thousands of dollars. One of our Sandakan relatives (prisoner of war) regularly organises a fundraising dinner, which has a capacity to raise $5,000 in three hours,” Lynette disclosed.
“So you can see, people rally to the cause and the donation pledged by Darryll’s trekking group is very welcome,” Lynnette enthused.
Darryll refers to Darryll Ashworth, a leading Perth-based property business man who led five friends – Justin De Giorgio Real Estate (Darryll’s colleague), Cameron Taylor Fitness Instructor, Steve Gravina Physiotherapist, Matt Bruce Construction and Daniel Loughnan.
Accountant, on a charity Death March trek to raise funds for Lynette’s “Buy a Smile” project.
A cleft lip or palate happens when the structures that form the upper lip or palate fail to join together when the baby is developing in the womb.
Some ‘before and after’ pictures showing children who benefitted from the project.
As Lynette noted, an ugly hare-lip and cleft palate disfigures a child’s face and is condemned to spend a life shunned by society.
Asked how he felt about helping children with cleft lips to get out of their misery through a death march walk, Darryll said: “I actually was not aware of this issue until about six weeks ago, by chance I looked at Lynette Silvers web page and saw a link that related to the work that was being done to raise funds.”
“Immediately I believed that to begin with this is something I need to help with and I made a donation.”
“I spoke to five mates about it and we all agreed that we should do more. In a very short period of time we have raised a significant amount of additional funds (A$35,000),” Darryll noted.
“The children with cleft issues and their families have very little means to raise sufficient fund for the procedure,” he reasoned.
Completely life-changing
“We would rather make sacrifices to our own life to help these children, this gives us greater reward that let’s say a new car. We don’t know these children, if we are lucky we may meet them once.
Leader Darryll crossing a typical suspension bridge in Sabah.
“However, the operation is completely life changing for the child, their family and their immediate community, it demonstrates to them that miracles can happen and that people they will never know actually really car for them,” Darryll reflected.
Asked why he and mates did the Death March, he said:
“As Mr Tham (legendary death march trek guide) would observe most people that undertake part of the Death March do so as they are personally connected to the POW’s, such as a Great Uncle who may have passed away.”
“However, myself and five mates don’t have any personal connections. Our interest is that many people in Australia are not aware of what happened in Sandakan. They are familiar with Kokoda in Papua New Guinea and Gallipoli in Turkey but that’s about it,” Darryll explained.
“I have undertaken a reasonable amount of research and I felt this is something that we should do and was able to ‘convince’ five mates to do it with me.”
A ‘tough’ five-day Death March trek
The group did a five-day trek:
Day 1 – 8km walk in Bauto Hill.
Day 2 – 18km walk from Maliau to Koporon.
Day 3 – 12km walk Koporon-Taviu Hill followed by a 3km trek down Zudin trail
Day 4 – 18km walk from Nabutan to Murud
Day 5 – carried rice 3km from Marakau to Ranau’s SIB church, then visited all the memorials.
So, how was the Death March walk?
Tracing the footsteps of prisoners of war in 1945 across the Telupid river.
“It’s a tough trek and I wanted it to be challenging. The jungle is very rugged terrain, it’s hot and humid, but we trained hard for six months and we wanted to be tested.”
“It was challenging, beautiful, refreshing, humbling, confronting, the people along the way are kind and happy with a generous spirit, I wanted my friends to see this.”
“Above all else a perspective on life that may well effect the rest of our lives. We loved it!” Darryll thought so.
Choosing the Death March challenge
On the choice of Sabah’s Death March challenge, he said:
“For me and my friends physical exercise are big parts of our lives, our last major challenge was running the Paris Marathon in under 3 hours.”
Darryll leading a charity Death March walk with scenic Mount Kinabalu in the background guided by TYK Adventures.
“We often train twice a day. However it’s not just the physical benefits, in equal part are the mental benefits, when we train we are not thinking about work/family or relationship issues.
“In fact we are not thinking at all… we are giving our brain a rest which in today’s world is important.
The Death March allowed us to physically challenge ourselves, but also to disconnect from our normal life. We turned off our phones, our eyes tuned in to the lush vegetation and our overall senses became more heightened to the environment.”
Thoughts from Tham & Lynette
Asked what he thinks of Darryll’s group, veteran Death March guide Tham Yau Kong said:
“My opinion is they did the charity challenge in full spirit, all the way from Day One to Day Five, walking together and never left anybody behind. They really did it with all their heart and I hope more ‘Buy a Smile’ will come to this charity challenge walk.”
Meanwhile, from Australia, Lynette updated Tham on the latest in ‘Buy a Smile’: “Two surgeries are taking place this week, Mohamad a 12 month old baby boy had surgery (July16), and Nada has a surgery on Friday (July 19).
“This would not have happened without you, Mr Tham. Through you and the Death March we found out about this cause and the inspiring work by Neil Silver and the members of the Rotary Club,” Lynette attributed.
“Being able to get results is simply a beautiful feeling.”
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