Final-year university student Ranordo Myrie, who suffers from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, got 4,000 reasons to smile on Wednesday after he received a grant that, he says, will cover his tuition.

But just after collecting the CAD$4,000 cheque from renowned radio disc jock Ron Muschette during his morning show on The Edge 105.3 FM, Myrie, who was accompanied by his mother Ordel Gordon, had a chance encounter with dancehall queen Spice (real name Grace Hamilton), who had arrived at the radio station for an interview.

On meeting Myrie and hearing that he was the winner of the Potluck Caribbean Restaurant giveaway staged in collaboration with The Ron Muschette Morning Show, Spice dipped into her purse and handed Myrie a significant amount of cash to help him.

Myrie’s face lit up, not only because of the donation but due to the fact that he is a big fan of the artiste who is also know for philanthropy.

Potluck Caribbean Restaurant in Canada and The Ron Muschette Morning Show had started promoting the giveaway last December with the intention of donating the funds to someone in need.

“I saw a video on TikTok and it was encouraging people to apply for a grant on the Ron Muschette Morning Show. I applied for it and a couple days after I received an e-mail to say I was selected,” Myrie told the Jamaica Observer.

“I was so happy. I told them that I was in my final year of college and the money would help me to pay off all my remaining courses. They saw that I needed it and they chose me. I am very grateful,” he said.

“Before leaving the studio, I ran into Spice. She is so beautiful. It was a great experience. She extended an act of kindness to me and I feel elated,” added Myrie who said that he is completing a bachelor’s degree in science information technology at University of the Commonwealth Caribbean and is eyeing a career in cybersecurity.

Myrie has been living with the effects of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis — the most common form of arthritis affecting children — for more than a decade.

“It has just been pain; pain is the best way to describe it,” he said.

“Without my mommy I couldn’t do it. There were times I would sit and cry and mommy would tell me to push through, and once I go out and I am at school or whatever, my spirit would be uplifted,” he shared.

Myrie, who uses crutches to move around because he is unable to walk, said the pain started when he was in grade five at Barracks Road Primary School in St James.

“Prior to that I was normal kid and I was even a big dancer. I started to feel a pain in my right thigh. I called my mommy and told her that my leg was hurting me and she said that when I get home she would rub it for me. I told her that I couldn’t manage it. My feet were bent in the seat and when I was ready to go home, I couldn’t move out of the seat,” he related.

“I never wanted to tell anybody because I thought I was strong enough. The teacher was ready to go home and she told me that it was time for me to go home now. I started to cry and she asked me why I was crying. I told her that I couldn’t move. She told me to hold on to her and I told her that she cannot manage me. There were two girls in the classroom and she asked them to assist me. They lifted me out of the seat and brought me to her car and then she brought me home,” Myrie recalled.

Worried by the development, his mother took him to a doctor, but that physician concluded that Myrie was not felling any pain.

His mother, though, was not satisfied and demanded to have another doctor examine her son.

“I went to a different doctor and got some medication and it stopped for a while,” Myrie shared. However, the pain returned and was more severe..

“It came back even worse. Growing up you would hear the term ‘bend up like K’, that was what happened to me. My feet were closed together and I felt a lot of pain. I had on weight but I wasn’t fat. I started to mawga down,” he said.

“It would affect my mommy because she used to cry. Imagine you have your good, good son who was normal and then all of a sudden he just can’t do certain things. If she had any little errands or anything like that she would send me, but it got to a point where she couldn’t even send me for a cup of water,” Myrie told the Observer.

“I managed to overcome the pain with prayer and support from her and others. Without my mommy, it wouldn’t be possible,” he added.

After graduating from Barracks Road Primary, Myrie attended Irwin High School in Montego Bay, St James. Though he tried to avoid using crutches to move around, he eventually yielded because of pain.

“When I was going to Irwin High, I wasn’t using crutches at that time. There was this day I started to feel pain and the school nurse saw me and told me to get crutches but I didn’t want it. I was thinking it would hold me down and maybe people would look at me a certain way. I had the pain but I was pushing through. Sometimes I even had to hold on to the walls to move around,” Myrie shared.

He said that one day, when his grandfather came to pick him up at school, the principal told him that his grandson needed the crutches.

“Even when I got the crutches, I didn’t want them, but one day the pain hooked me and when I tried to use the crutch, I realised that it was nice because it eased the pain off me. From I started to use it, I never put it back down,” he said.

Myrie, though, is concerned that his condition has worsened.

“Before, I would be able to move around, because I was able to climb Dunn’s River Falls with the crutches. Now, I can’t even go down the street by myself. The condition affects my neck now so I can’t even hold up my head to see where I am going. Because of the cars and stuff, that is dangerous, so I can’t really go out without mommy anymore,” he told the Observer.

He shared that he has a deep and undying love for his mother who, he vowed, will have to walk the aisle with him whenever he is going to get married.

“God’s willing, I will be doing it with God and my mommy by my side,” he said.

His mother admitted that it was hard to accept the reality of what was happening to her son in the initial stages but she eventually overcame that feeling.

“I am very much proud of him. When the sickness started I had to really ask God if this was really my burden to carry. It was really a hard one, but I decided that with God by my side, I am not giving up, so I decided to persevere because I believed that through perseverance it would happen,” Gordon said.

“He is a son that gives a little pain here and there. He is argumentative and sometimes he doesn’t follow all my instructions, but I am still proud of him, regardless of the situation,” she said.

“We are happy for the grant because, as he said, he will be able to finish and move forward. I really want to see him in the cyber environment so I can say ‘that’s my boy’. I am confident he can do it and he has shown me in many instances where he is able to do it,” she told the Observer.