Strength gained battling cancer used to help others
SHE is not yet 30 but Yolanda Bukani has spent what feels like a lifetime in hospitals.
The young mother is one of the “cover girls” in today’s SPAR Women’s Challenge supplement, as well as the face of the Igazi Foundation’s Marrow Masakhane campaign.
A cancer survivor, Bukani, 29, is one of thousands of women – and a few men in drag – who will flood the streets of Summerstrand for the SPAR Women’s Challenge on Saturday, May 5.
The public relations officer for the Southern Kings rugby team at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium had a brush with death when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 lymphoma in 2012.
However, thanks to prompt treatment after her diagnosis, she is not only in remission from cancer, but has a flourishing new life.
In addition to being a mom to cricket fan Jody, Bukani is also a motivational speaker and models with Xtreme Models.
She recently had a “callback” for a national television station’s presenter search. Bukani was a law student at Rhodes University and Jody was only 11 months old when she learnt she had cancer, and says it was a difficult time for her family, who live in Alice.
“During my treatment I missed a lot of my child’s growing up. I couldn’t see Jody for a long time because my immune system was very weak.”
Under the care of lymphoma specialist Dr Neil Littleton, who heads the Aloe Igazi Haematology Unit at Port Elizabeth Provincial Hospital, she underwent a gruelling treatment programme of chemotherapy and then a bone marrow transplant.
And fortunately she has made a full recovery.
“What kept me going was knowing I had a young child and I had to fight for him,” Bukani said.
“I wanted Jody to have a chance to get to know his mother,” she said of the lively Grade 1 pupil who turns seven on Monday.
Experiencing cancer at a young age has made a profound impact on her life.
“When I was diagnosed I didn’t know much about it and there’s a lot of people who don’t know.
“We have this thing that ‘I’m young, I’m healthy, I won’t get sick’ – so now I use my experiences to educate others.
“I’m an ambassador for the Igazi Foundation and the face of the Marrow Masakhane campaign, which is a campaign to educate black people to donate bone marrow.
“We go into communities and I share my story and tell people how to live a healthy life, keep fit and eat healthy food.”
ý Read Bukani’s full story in today’s SPAR Women’s Challenge supplement.
I wanted Jody to have a chance to get to know his mother