Financial support requested for two Sask. families hit hard by COVID-19

Supporters of two Saskatchewan men — Ali Syed and Christian Dela Cruz — are reaching out to ask for financial help for their families after COVID-19 hit them hard.

Syed’s family has experienced the best and worst life has to offer in a short span of time.

Ali Syed. (GoFundMe)

They recently welcomed a new daughter and on Monday, they said goodbye to Syed at a funeral and burial for the father of three after losing him to the virus on Sunday.

Syed, a SaskPower employee working at Boundary Dam Power Station, came down with COVID-19 in late March, according to a GoFundMe page organized by Preston Benning on April 2.

Syed spent time in the ICU in Regina on a ventilator. His wife, Misbah, was also hospitalized with COVID-19 in the final weeks of her pregnancy. Funds raised will be used to support her and the children.

Meanwhile, another Saskatchewan father continues his fight to recover since being hospitalized in mid-March.

Dela Cruz — better known as Ian — has been in ICUs in both Regina and Saskatoon, requiring a ventilator after being infected by a COVID-19 variant, according to a GoFundMe organized by Melo Vataga.

“Ian is a loving and dedicated father, husband, son, friend and colleague who works hard to provide for his family,” Vataga said on the GoFundMe page, which was created on April 10.

“With him not being able to work and his whole family testing positive and having to remain at home, it can be very difficult financially.”

GoFundMe pages have been started for other Saskatchewan people who fought COVID-19, including Corey Charles and Warren Montgomery.