For more than four decades, 83-year-old Joy Hawksley-Hill has been the quiet guardian angel behind Persian Cat Rescue Johannesburg, dedicating her life and every penny she owned to caring for abandoned and sick cats. Joy has bottle-fed countless orphaned kittens, nursed strays back to health, and found loving homes for thousands of forgotten felines, all while refusing to ask for a single cent in return. When her heart began racing irregularly and she was rushed to the ICU at Linksfield Clinic, the woman who had given everything to help animals found herself in need of help for the very first time.
The dedicated rescuer has no medical insurance because every dollar she ever earned went toward vet bills, cat food, and shelter expenses for the animals in her care. Her chosen family of fellow cat lovers and rescue volunteers has rallied around their beloved mentor, with one supporter launching a fundraising campaign to cover her medical costs. Tayla Galvin, who calls Joy her adopted grandmother, is leading the effort to ensure that the woman who spent her life saving others finally gets the care she deserves. The community’s response proves that a lifetime of selfless giving creates ripples of love that eventually find their way back home.