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Dubai: Born with speech disability, bullied for years, this 21-year-old now helps terminally ill children

Samuel Weidenhofer is one of the five nominees shortlisted for the 1 billion award—a prize worth $1 million for content creators

Published: Mon 13 Jan 2025, 9:01 AM

Updated: Mon 13 Jan 2025, 8:39 PM

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Photos: Supplied

Photos: Supplied

As a child, Samuel Weidenhofer was ridiculed and bullied relentlessly because of his speech impediment. Today, he is a content creator who spreads happiness and positivity through his social media and is one of the five nominees shortlisted for the 1 billion Award—a prize worth $1 million for content creators.

On his social media pages, Samuel helps mostly terminally ill youngsters to meet their favourite celebrities and supports those who need it the most.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, the 21-year-old said he was determined to help people after his life experiences. “I was born with a speech disability and my mum never knew if I would be able to talk or communicate properly,” he said. “I was bullied my whole life through school which led down a path of depression. When I was nine, my aunt took her life. I was the one who picked up the phone when my uncle called and I remember the pain in his life. I never wanted anyone else to feel that way.”

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Beginning his content creation journey four years ago, Samuel started doing pranks and interview videos on his platform. However, he realized that he was not enjoying himself. “I was having a rough night and my friend sat me in the car and asked, you've got some followers but are you happy?” he said. “He explained that to be a creator and truly succeed, you must be yourself. That's when I thought, why don't I just help people because that's what brings me joy.”

Most memorable

During the last three years, Samuel has helped hundreds of people but the one person who stands out in his memory is Alex.

“He was 14 years old and he had cancer,” he recalled. “I took him to see Travis Barker in America. Alex took the numbing medicine epidural to be able to go to the concert and meet Travis. The cancer got pretty bad and Alex passed away three weeks after that. But I could never forget his face when after the concert he told me, you gave me the best night of my life.”

He said Alex taught him to live in the moment. “He was 14 and he was preparing for his untimely death,” he said. “But he had made peace with it. I think that's how people should live their life. You don't know when your time's up, you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow so live in the moment and do what you want to do.”

Mental Health

Samuel said that as someone who meets people facing death daily, he has learnt to create barriers to maintain his mental health. “You can't get too involved and you just have to have that mental barrier of caring, being there and loving them but you can't let it affect you too much because I think that would deter me from wanting to spread positivity,” he said. “I look at kids I've met who have died. I've seen poverty. I use that as an inspiration to want to make a change to that.”

He had big plans for if he won the award. “If I win, I want to create a not-for-profit based on the overall impact of kindness,” he said. “Many such organisations have defined rules on what you have to do but I want mine to be about kindness and helping people.

"I've always wanted to make this more sustainable and have more people involved. If it was a not-for-profit, more people would want to donate and I would be able to help more people.”

The top five contenders of the 1 billion award were selected through public voting, which saw a total of 3.3 million votes being cast from around the world. On Monday afternoon, entrepreneur and author Simon Squibb was announced as the winner. Although he did not win, Samuel said that he was determined to continue doing what he does best.

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