Rare illness didn’t hold him back
BEFORE becoming South Africa’s top matriculant for 2015, Andrew Tucker spent a good part of last year using crayons to fill in children’s colouring books.
Diagnosed with GuillainBarré syndrome in February, he could not open a tube of toothpaste, let alone hold a pen.
But, despite being hospitalised and needing nearly five months to recover, Tucker, 18, went on to score seven distinctions in his final exams.
His academic results were not the first thing Tucker thought about when he was told he had a life-threatening autoimmune disease. The South African College High School pupil from Noordhoek on the Cape Peninsula was more disappointed that he would not be able to compete in athletics.
Over his years at Sacs — he started there in Grade 1 — he had developed a passion for running and had hoped to compete in the triangular meeting with Rondebosch Boys and Bishops, where he expected to finish in BARRÉ NONE: The top matriculant in the country is Western Cape pupil Andrew Tucker, here with his proud mother, Meghan, and sister, Jenna, at their home in Noordhoek the 1 500m medals.
“I became sick a few weeks before, so those dreams were crushed,” said Tucker. “It was very frustrating for me.”
It was on an athletics track that he had experienced his first symptoms, feeling his legs buckle during a race.
“Guillain-Barré is very rare but doctors think it can be triggered by a respiratory infection,” said Tucker. “It attacks your peripheral nervous system, which are your nerve cells in your limbs specifically, and causes muscle weakness. That took away my fine motor skills and I couldn’t write or even tear open a packet of chips.”
He was sent home after five nights in hospital and continued his rehabilitation through physiotherapy and occupational therapy — and the colouring.
Determined not to let his illness take away all the highlights of his final year at school, Tucker attended his matric dance less than a month after his diagnosis, even though it meant his date had to cut up his food for him. After studying at home he returned to the top of his grade — where he had been since Grade 4 — after the midyear exams.
Tucker has been offered a scholarship to study at the University of Cape Town. “I was leaning towards business, but after being treated by the neurologist I realised I want to go into medicine to help people the way he helped me,” he said. WHEN his mother died, Lukhanyiso Mzimela’s world came crashing down. She had sacrificed so much to enrol him at a private school, and he had no clue how his studies would continue after that.
But then his friend’s parents opened their home and hearts to him — and this week, both boys did them proud by passing their matric, each scoring five As.
Mzimela met Dumisa Nzama in Grade 4 at Eden College in Durban, but then they switched schools and lost contact. In Grade 9, the two boys became friendly again while enrolled at Crawford College.
Mzimela’s mother died two years later and it was during the funeral that Nzama’s mother, Gawu, decided to “adopt” him.
“I didn’t know what would become of my life without my mother. My world came crashing down. I was worried about school and many other things,” said Mzimela.
Until then the two boys had never dreamt of sharing a home, or having the same “parents” to help them through school.
“They’re our makeshift twins,” said Gawu. Elliot, her husband, added: “When my wife told me about Lukhanyiso’s situation I could read her mind . . . and I said yes.”
But the Nzamas, who live in La Lucia, north of Durban, could HIGH NOTES: Crawford College stars Lukhanyiso Mzimela and Dumisa Nzama, with Nzama’s parents, Gawu and Elliot only afford to provide Mzimela with a home.
“We could not afford to pay for his school fees,” said Gawu. She convinced Crawford College executives and owners Advtech to offer Mzimela a 100% scholarship for his Grade 11 and 12 studies.
“He deserved a scholarship; he is hard-working and was an active student at the school. Changing schools was not an option,” she said.
Mzimela’s father died when he was three years old.
“When my dad died, I had to live with my grandmother in Mandeni so that my mother could look for work in Durban.
“My mother did everything to make sure that I went to a good school. She was my everything,” he said.
He could not imagine his life without the Nzamas. “I am so grateful for what they have done for me.”
The two friends might part ways once again this year as Mzimela plans to head to the University of Johannesburg to study accounting, while Nzama intends enrolling at Stellenbosch University to pursue a career in medicine.