Chad Latham and Malak Moustafa
Chad Latham is gearing up for a fundraiser to help save his fiance’s life.
The benefit, which will feature stand-up comedy and music Oct. 6th at the Hi-Tone, will be held in addition to a GoFundMe for Malak Moustafa, who has hip dysplasia.
If they aren’t able to raise the money for Moustafa’s surgery, she will be immobile for the rest of her life, Latham says.
They need $10,000.
They’ve only received $165 so far.
“She’s a sixth grade teacher at Ridgeway Middle,” Latham says. “The first girl I ever dated. We reconnected later in life.”
They met when they were in the eighth grade. Moustafa is Muslim and Latham is Christian. Latham remembers her dad answering when he called her on the phone. “Because of different cultures and strict parents she was not allowed to date so naturally the very next day I received a note that explained she couldn’t date and that she then had to break up with me.”
Over the years, Latham and Moustafa messaged each other from time to time on Facebook. Latham, who is divorced, told her he had a daughter. Moustafa, a widow, was living in Memphis, Egypt, with her two sons.
In 2015, they began regularly corresponding on Facebook. And never stopped.
Moustafa told him she wanted to move back to Memphis. She wanted her sons “to grow up in a better culture.”
Latham, who finally was able to get Moustafa and her boys to Memphis, proposed to her at the airport after she arrived in June 2016. “The boys were happy knowing they were going to have a daddy for once in their life.”
He knew Moustafa had hip dysplasia, but she said it “didn’t really hold her back from anything growing up.”
But her condition got worse after she gave birth to her boys, he says. “That pretty much kicked it in high gear for advancement in deterioration.”
Over the years, Moustafa “walked wrong” because of her condition, Latham says. “One leg is smaller than the other from lack of muscle mass and not being able to put her normal walking weight on it. Because with hip dysplasia there is nothing to connect the leg bone to the pelvic region. She tries to hide it the best she can, but you can only do that so well and so long. It’s embarrassing and painful for her.”
Moustafa has to have a full bone replacement because of the “grinding down from over the years of walking. It has also caused major scoliosis mainly on her spine. If she doesn’t have this surgery as soon as possible, she will be immobile for the rest of her life. Her spine can’t stand to get any worse and it kills her every step she takes. I literally have to help massage her back every night to try to find some type of comfort.”
Moustafa doesn’t take any pain pills. “She’s seen first hand what that can do to people. Plus, she’s a fighter. She doesn’t ask anyone for anything.”
Latham decided to contact everyone he knows and who knows her to help him “do something nice for a great soul that deserves to not feel the pain that she feels everyday. “
He wants her “to know what it feels like to walk normal again.”
The fundraiser will include performances from two bands – No Love for Lions and Ego Slip – and MC King Farroah and stand-up comedian Josh McLane.
“I’ve put my heart into this because she is the love of my life and she deserves it,,” Latham says.
To give to the GoFundMe, go to:
https://www.facebook.com/events/492612724540208/?ti=cl https://www.gofundme.com/Help-Malak
