Giving hope to breast cancer survivors
Nneile Nkholise is a visionary who is changing the lives of other women.The 27-year-old mechanical engineering graduate student has started a company that not only produces affordable breast prosthetics for women who have had mastectomies, but also employs young women with potential in engineering. From an early age Nkholise wanted to follow in the footsteps of her journalist brother.
But her mother had a different plan. “Engineering was my mother's choice. I was introduced to the
African Renaissance when I was in primary school and I fell in love with exploring Africa. After matric I wanted to be a writer, but my mother decided that I should go into mechanical engineering.”
While some of her engineering classmates were dreaming of jobs in big companies, she wanted to take the road less travelled.
“I wanted to be a design engineer because I was creative and artistic. I wanted to explore that side of engineering.
“That's when my love for the arts came in. As I studied mechanical engineering, I started understanding that there is more to this profession than meets the eye. It's not just about cars or production,” she says with a smile.
She has gone on to do great things. Her most recent achievements include being crowned the overall winner at the South Africa Youth Awards hosted by the National Youth Development Agency, and the winner in the Best Entrepreneur in Science, Technology and Innovation category. She also won Africa's Top Women Innovators Challenge 2016 at the World Economic Forum in Rwanda.
Manufacturing prosthetics
After completing her BTECH Mechanical Engineering degree at the Central University of Technology, Nkholise started a company called IMED Tech. It is currently incubated at the Innovation Hub, where it manufactures prosthetics.
She is now studying for a Masters' in Mechanical Engineering at the same university. Her research focuses on the applications of additive manufacturing in medicine.
Her interest in manufacturing breast prosthetics was sparked when she and her male classmates were discussing facial prosthetics – no one mentioned breast prosthetics. “Being a woman and seeing so many lose breasts to cancer, I said someone needs to give answers to that.”
Initially the company manufactured ordinary breast prosthetics, but they are now creating one that has a magnet and can be stuck inside a bra. “Those who use it can go to gym while it is still attached to their body”.
Another reason Nkholise went into the area of breast prosthetics was to help women who could not afford breast reconstruction. “When someone has undergone a mastectomy, the option that person would have is breast reconstruction, and that is expensive. It can go over R120 000.
“We wanted to create an option where women can get a breast that is naturally fitting and has a feel of a real breast.”
Since establishing her company she has created employment for four other young women, all under the age of 30.“One of the things I want to do is to empower young women in the field of engineering. I have a responsibility to skill as many young people as I can.”