Cape Town - After having spent many of her formative and teenage years in a hospital setting seeking treatment and then in remission for cancer until 17, a young woman’s dream of following in the footsteps of her paediatrician has been realised.
In Grade 9, Nosiphiwo (Ntenge) Mandla, now 33, had shared with her childhood paediatrician, Dr Abe Daniels, 73, her dream to become just like him, though this was already known by the age of 6.
At seven months old, Gqeberhaborn Ntenge was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia by Dr Abe Daniels. She was then sent to Red Cross Children’s War Memorial Hospital on a mercy flight for further evaluation and induction of chemotherapy.
Her young age had placed her in a high risk category with caution that the treatment might not be successful. Doctors then advised for her to continue treatment at Livingstone Hospital, where Daniels headed the Paediatric Oncology Department. She has been in remission since 1993 but continued check-ups until aged 17.
At the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa graduation ceremony, Daniels was given the honour, reserved for a select few, to cap his former patient whose chances of survival were slim, as she graduated as a specialist in paediatrics, at the Good Hope Christian Centre, in Ottery, yesterday.
“He described his humble beginnings, his journey to UCT to study medicine and made (it) clear that I can be a doctor, (and) the only thing I needed to do was to read and work hard. I also came from a family that supports education.
“Although my parents, Nokhangelekile and Mbuyiseli Ntenge, were not educated, my mother was a street vendor and my father a security guard, all my siblings got educated.”
In Grade 11, Ntenge, from Motherwell Township, would shadow Daniels at his private practice.
After matriculating, she was accepted to study at UCT and awarded a full bursary from the Eastern Cape Department of Health. She then pursued a diploma in child health and started her internship and community service.
“Since undergraduate, it’s been a parent-daughter relationship instead of a doctor, and then obviously it was a childhood illness.
“At 17, I was discharged but we remained connected. Now I’m married with two kids and they’ve been a part of that journey as well,” she said.
Daniels said 47 of his former patients became doctors and nine, paediatricians.
“With children, you have to put love and caring in there so that they can feel loved and cared for and they will get better on their own.”
“It’s also got a lot to do with Charmelle (his wife). She is very homely, she would come and entertain children. It’s not just treating diseases, its treating patients in a holistic way.”
Charmelle, 72, was a pre-primary school teacher who largely drove early childhood education in black townships, where it was an uncommon practice. She left to assist Daniels at the private practice in 1990.
The bubbly and warm couple shared the emotional moment seeing Ntenge depart for UCT at 17, with no one to welcome her once there. She graduated as a medical doctor in 2013 at the age of 23.
Charmelle said the moment felt unreal. “I can only say that God has a hand in this because we saw it from start to finish until she left on the bus. I was always struck by whatever was given to her, it was appreciated.”
The couple shared a testament to Ntenge’s humility when asked by Reach for a Dream as to what her wish was. She asked to be taken to Robben Island to see Nelson Mandela’s prison cell with her mother.