Wheelchair woman’s smart idea
A car accident left her disabled and in a wheelchair, but Edwina didn’t see obstacles – she saw a business opportunity
THERE’S an old saying about making lemonade when life gives you lemons – but when those lemons are a car crash that leaves you confined to a wheelchair, it’s hard to put a positive spin on the experience. Well, it would be for most people – but most people aren’t Edwina Makgamatha. On one wall of her spacious, smartly furnished office in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, is a plaque that gives insight into her mind: “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.” If ever there was a woman determined to move ahead it’s this 33-year-old entrepreneur.
Edwina endured a humiliating battle to get the medical supplies she needs to manage living with her disability – but instead of sinking into anger and despair she turned her struggle into a thriving business.
Edwina took her life savings and started an enterprise that delivers medical supplies – such as catheters, gauze swabs, surgical tapes, bandages and antiseptic cream – to the doorsteps of disabled people.
In the process Edwina, who was born in Tembisa near Kempton Park, has created jobs for nine people, “which makes me very happy”, she says.
“We are finalising a new business in Limpopo which will employ more people,” she tells us. “We’re planning to expand nationwide to help people in urban and rural places.”
She started her company, Thusanang Enabling Support Services, three years ago, after a horrific car crash in 2010 left her unable to walk.
After months in rehabilitation she was shocked to realise that the world was no longer suited to her as a disabled person.
She had to move out of her secondstorey flat because she couldn’t access it. She also had to adjust how she cared for her two young children.
Edwina returned to her job at the logistics company where she’d worked for three years, determined that her disability wouldn’t change how she lived her life. But what she once regarded as small inconveniences became massive obstacles to her. The office lifts not working, for example, forced her to ask colleagues to help carry her up or down the stairs.
T“That is one of the most demotivating things for disabled people,” she says. “Our country isn’t an accessible place for disabled people.”
That is why she decided to change things up. HE devastating 2010 car accident wasn’t the first one Edwina survived. She was just 21 when she was left with a broken pelvis after a car crash in 2006 – and she was shattered when doctors told her she might not be able to have children because of her injury. “I felt a void within me,” she recalls.
It took nearly a year for her to learn to walk again – and miraculously, two years later she became pregnant with her first son, who’s now nine years old. Her second son was born a year-and-a-half later.
“My boys came so close after each other, it was as if I was in a hurry,” Edwina says, laughing.
But more tragedy lay in store for her and her family.
Two years later, the father of her sons was driving their car on the N4 highway near Brits in North West when they were hit by a drunk driver.
Edwina was the only one who suffered life-changing injuries – she was left a paraplegic. The drunk driver was never
arrested, despite a police investigation.
“It used to make me so bitter because justice wasn’t served. The bitterness was severe for months after the accident but I realised it wasn’t going to help me, so I let it go.”
Edwina was in the intensive care unit of a Pretoria hospital for three weeks and spent three months in the facility’s rehabilitation centre.
When she eventually went home she had to find new ways of playing with her children as she could no longer get down on the floor with them.
They wanted to push her wheelchair, she recalls, “to help me to move around, but they were too small”.
Edwina has since split from the father of her children and is raising her sons on her own. She’s protective of her boys and asks us not to name them.
AS SHE began to adapt to life with a disability Edwina heard a voice in her head telling her she was meant for greater things and could be doing more with her life. After careful thought she quit her job at the logistics company and went to work in the marketing department of the National Council for Persons with Physical Disabilities.
“I believe God wanted to take me deeper into self-discovery,’’ she says.
Edwina remembered how she struggled after her release from hospital to get basic medical supplies, such as a catheter. She decided to make this her crusade.
“I was never told what size of catheter was suitable for me. I went to pharmacies and had to demonstrate to show what size I wanted. It was embarrassing,” she says.
“That is what got me thinking, ‘Now that I know how to get the correct size for myself, can I not help other people to get the right size catheters and medication delivered to their doorstep?’
“That’s how the idea of starting a home-delivery business came to me – to make life a bit easier and a bit more comfortable for other people with disabilities.”
Her company doesn’t only deliver medical supplies, it also advises people on how to deal with the Road Accident Fund, such as how to submit claims if they need to modify their homes (to make it wheelchair-friendly) or pay for medical expenses.
Customers are also provided with advice to help them deal with their disabilities and take care of their health.
“We educate people about the dangers of pressure ulcers and urinary tract infections and the importance of personal hygiene. After you’ve been discharged from hospital, you’re on your own. There’s no nursing sister to look after you.”
Her company also provides training for caregivers “whether it’s mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters or relatives”.
Edwina says her business has become “more of a life than a job because I understand the needs of disabled people”.
“I always encourage them not to give up because we all have that inner strength and the ability to adjust to any situation. If I can do it, other people can too. They must keep moving.”
Edwina lives a fully independent life. She’s a regular at the gym, takes part in church activities, sings in a choir and is studying organisational and industrial psychology. She’s also a motivational speaker – her slogan is “see it, believe it”.
“I give people hope that it’s not the end of the world. There’s still life out there that you can enjoy. We mustn’t let negative thoughts and the painful past stop us from pushing forward.”
‘Once you’ve been discharged from hospital you’re on your own. There’s no nursing sister to look after you’