When Yvette Rosenberg, a go-getting function coordinator, suddenly fell ill in December 2015, she had no idea of the long-term consequences and rehabilitation that lay ahead. She remembers thinking on the day that she could still make her event that evening and put her symptoms down to end of year stress and fatigue. She was…
While Women’s Month is special for all South African women in many different and personal ways, for Bulelwa Madlongwana, the month resonates especially deeply. It was in this month, two years ago, that a lifelong dream was realised. Bulelwa is a dynamo. She is a lively and energetic single mother of two sons; a young…
Although filled with challenges, Nokuselo Mbukwana’s life reads in part like a fairy-tale for the 21st century. Having been born with mobility limitations and regarded as ‘different’ to her childhood peers, she has worked hard to achieve her career aspirations while balancing family life, has rediscovered a soul mate from her school days, enjoys the…
Marshall Marsh is unstoppable! A few days ago specific adaptations were fitted to his car, made possible by Nicky’s Drive, a registered non-profit organisation that aims to assist people with disabilities within South Africa to be mobile and independent through the funding of car adaptations. From his home in Uitenhage, which he shares with his…
Meet Noluvo Mahlalutye – go-getter and firm believer in doing things for oneself rather than relying on others. The fact that Noluvo has limited mobility as a result of contracting polio at the age of five years old has never deterred her. In fact, it has spurred her on to living a life of action…
For Eudricht Kotze, not having his independence after a car accident left him a quadriplegic in 2012, simply wasn’t an option. At the time he was 20 years old, living alone in Stellenbosch and working as a civil engineer. His work required him to travel a great deal and he had always enjoyed being behind…
My name is Sanien de Beer, and this is my story. I am a phytotherapist by profession, practising in Somerset West. Most people aren’t familiar with this profession, which is the study and practice of clinical herbal medicine. This chosen career has allowed me to give expression to the passion that I have always had…
“My name is Nomajwarha and I’m a contract civil engineer at the Water Authority of the Amathole District Municipality in East London. Although engineers are generally required to do a lot of travelling as part of our job, I travel now less than I used to a couple of years ago. This is because a…
Article written by Marieke van Rooyen In 2006, Donald Pitt was involved in a car accident that left him paralysed from the waist down. As a result of his physical injury, he suffered years of depression, never imagining that he would be able to drive again in future. Things changed, however, in 2010, when he…
A decade ago, Siphamandla Mtsolo survived a shooting. The trauma caused by the gunshot wound to his spinal column was severe, and resulted in him becoming a quadriplegic. Yet despite the loss of full body mobility, Siphamandla has pursued his life with determination and vigour. Today he is a confident thirty-year old, completing a Master’s…