Dr Happy tested by sadness and struggle
Tyler James and Tayla Muller skateboard along the Durban beachfront this week HAPPY Nkambule was told to drop out of school in his matric year because of money problems in the family. He could, said his relatives, try again the next year. With exams just weeks away, Nkambule was “utterly devastated”.
But a teacher took him in, and Nkambule bagged five distinctions. He was accepted to study medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Now he has graduated with a degree in medicine, cum laude. The newly qualified Dr Nkambule says he owes his success to hard work and dedication — and the help and support of friends and his adoptive family over the past six years.
“I moved from Kinross in Mpumalanga to come and live with my elder brother [in Dawn Park on Johannesburg’s East Rand] when I was in high school, but he lost his house. Because of the financial diffilying. culties and stress, he said I should drop out and try matric the next year.”
Rebecca Motabo, his life orientation teacher at Rondebult Secondary School, became aware of his plight and asked him to move in with her family.
This week Motabo described him as a “brilliant boy”.
“I call them my adopted family and I’ve been living here ever since. They’ve supported me all the time,” said Nkambule, who will turn 23 on Christmas Day.
He said he remembers the moment he decided to become a doctor. He was five and was taken to a GP after contracting viral meningitis. “I didn’t understand a word the doctor was saying. I was confused, but also very intrigued,” he said.
As with many students, he found it challenging to adjust to the demands of university. But nothing could have prepared him for the challenges he would face in April 2012 and again in April 2013 — during his third and fourth years of study.
“My sister passed away just before the exams in April 2012. It was quite a horrible experience because I used to speak to my sister a lot,” he said.
The following April his mother became ill and she, too, died. “At times it still feels like a dream. I think I’m going to wake up one day and she’ll phone me and tell me she’s just been on holiday. I’ve come to really hate the month of April.”
An initial life of hardship coupled with tragedy early on in his life makes Nkambule want to make a difference.
“I think my sister had cancer but it just wasn’t detected early enough,” he said. CUM LAUDE: Guardian angels supported Dr Happy Nkambule
Because of the stress, he said I should drop out and try the next year