Miss SA’s battle with tuberculosis
Tamaryn Green speaks candidly about her illness and her fight to remove its stigma
FOR years she kept quiet about the disease that had taken hold of her body. She feared the worst: that people would judge her, that she’d be isolated and that the stigma associated with it would stick to her long after she’d healed.
Tamaryn Green’s fears were realised earlier this year when she finally disclosed to people other than her family that she’d had tuberculosis.
The 24-year-old who was crowned Miss SA in May this year was then a finalist in the running for the title and spoke about it at a book event hosted by former Miss SA Adé van Heerden.
One of the other finalists reacted in exactly the way Tamaryn had feared: she told pageant organisers she was scared of getting TB after being in Tamaryn’s presence.
“It was like a kick to the stomach,” Tamaryn tells YOU, her eyes brimming with tears.
“I couldn’t understand why she didn’t talk to me about it. I was hurt that she couldn’t look me in the eye.
“I just had to call her. And she told me, ‘Tamaryn, I was uninformed. That’s why I acted like that. Now I’ll never do that to anyone else again’.”
The other woman’s response kindled a fire in Tamaryn’s belly and she decided to launch the #BreakingTheStigma campaign to combat negative – and often incorrect – perceptions about TB.
“It was like pouring petrol on a fire,” she says. “I knew this campaign had the potential to reach many people – it could even save lives.”
Tears fill Tamaryn’s eyes as she recalls how scared she was when she first fell ill.
“I was well aware of the stigma surrounding TB – that it was a disease associated with poverty and Aids. That it’s a disease only dirty people get.
“I was afraid the pain of being stigmatised would cling to me longer than the six months it would take to treat the condition with medication.”
SHE was diagnosed three years ago with the condition that had a huge effect on her life. Tamaryn woke up one chilly winter morning and felt as if she had a mild cold. She was a third-year medical student at the time and wasn’t too worried about it.
But when her lymph nodes became increasingly swollen she realised something was seriously wrong.
She had several tests, including one for TB. “It’s standard procedure for medical students and doctors who come into contact with various diseases to do a test for TB,” she explains.
“The idea behind the test is to rule out TB. It never crossed my mind it could be a condition I could pick up.”
For two weeks after contracting her “cold” she didn’t know what to think as doctors struggled to diagnose her.
Eventually she had to have surgery to have the lymph nodes removed so
they could be sent for tests.
It was the first time she’d had to be wheeled into an operating theatre. “It was a terribly difficult time in my life,” she says. “The doctors feared it could be cancer. It hit me hard.
“Although it was torture not knowing what was wrong, I knew I shouldn’t worry until all the facts were known.”
Nearly two weeks later, on 27 June 2015, she finally received the TB diagnosis and treatment had to begin straight away.
Tamaryn had entered the Miss SA competition for the first time then and decided to withdraw so she could focus on getting better.
She was disappointed about having to put her dreams on hold but was flooded with relief, she says.
She knew the disease could be beaten – but the relief was tinged with anxiety.
“I was afraid,” she says, becoming tearful again. “I knew sufferers are sometimes isolated but I didn’t really understand the stigma until I got TB.
“I was determined to prevent people from isolating me or treating me differently. I didn’t want people to think they might get sick if they were around me [because the strain of TB Tamaryn had isn’t transmitted through coughing as it’s not present in the lungs] or avoid me out of fear. So I kept it to myself.”
Only her parents and four friends, all medical students, knew of her diagnosis.
At first life carried on as before, except that she had to take medication every day.
In the six months she fought the disease she had two setbacks: a bacterial infection in the wound where the lymph nodes had been removed, and drug-induced hepatitis as a result of the powerful TB medication which caused constant nausea and vomiting.
But she persevered and by December 2015 she’d not only overcome these hurdles, she’d beaten the disease and been given the all-clear by doctors. And she’d managed to write an exam during the holidays.
She reaches for another tissue. “It was a relief to know it was over, but little did I know there was a long emotional road ahead. I thought I was okay – that I’d be strong enough to tackle this thing alone,” she says.
“At the time I didn’t realise how traumatic it all had been and the psychological impact it would have on my life. I also didn’t know the emotional stress could be diminished simply by talking about it. But I was stubborn and wanted to deal with the situation by myself.
“I later learnt I couldn’t deal with it alone – that it was okay to ask for help.”
She sought the help of a counselling psychologist to help her work through her emotions.
HER determination to fight the stigma around TB is clear. But Tamaryn was still panicstricken days before she launched her #BreakingTheStigma campaign in Johannesburg.
She knows how important it is – and how powerful a platform she now has to help others who are scared too.
“I want everyone to know how many people die daily while there’s medication that could heal them,” she says passionately.
“I want to inform people about the disease and teach them that illnesses don’t discriminate.”
Tamaryn plans to attend a conference later this year in New York where world leaders will meet to find solutions to the TB crisis.
Then she plans to promote her campaign locally. “I know TB isn’t a nice topic. But that’s exactly why I want to use my platform to show people that this disease can affect anyone – but it’s not the end and we don’t have to be ashamed to talk about it.
“And if a handful of people look down on me, so what? If I can reach hundreds of lives I could make a real difference.”
‘I knew sufferers are sometimes isolated but I didn’t really understand the stigma until I got TB’