There aren’t many who can boast of recently having walked out of hospital nine days after major surgery and immediately proposing to the love of their lives. Durban-based organ recipient, Navern Munian, 30, is one such person. A goal-driven investment officer in the...

SINCERE, compassionate, self-effacing, and with a quirky sense of humour, Tracey Gibbs is the kind of woman who will fly off in her gardening gear on a Saturday morning rescue mission at a moment’s notice. It was entirely in keeping with my impression of her to hear...

  I would like to share with you the circumstances around my 20-year-old son's becoming an organ donation two years ago, at Milpark Hospital. My son, Cobus, was involved in a horrific motor vehicle accident on the N12 in Mpumalanga. He suffered a traumatic brain...

  Until I discovered I needed a new heart, our family hardly knew anything about organ donation, apart from what we heard periodically on the radio or read in the print media.   We never took the time to really understand it. Of course, we would do the usual blood...

It’s always hard when someone asks you to tell your story. Where do you begin? How much do you tell? It’s weird to even imagine I have a story worth reading. How do you fit a lifetime in a few pages? My name is Kayl Symons, I am 23 years old and I have cystic fibrosis...

The greatest gift one could ever receive is the gift of life…   When a person comes face to face with the prospect of death as I have, you tend to look at life very differently.     Before my Transplant:     Since childhood, I have suffered from chronic liver...

          Once in a while, we come across that rare being whose approach to life is a dizzying whirlwind of philanthropy, family, industry, and achievement. Michelle Michael is one such person.  The eldest of four children, Michelle was born in Osindisweni Hospital in...

I don’t think anybody was prepared for the curveballs that 2020 has thrown at us! The current situation we are facing is almost surreal – and quite terrifying. Trying to protect a vulnerable child – from both the virus and also any illness or injury that would require...

I am Praveena Vather and I am from Pietermaritzburg. Twenty years ago, I underwent a complete heart transplant at Entabeni Hospital in Durban, becoming the first female to undergo such a transplant in KwaZulu-Natal.  Today I am proud to report that I am also the first...

I should have died 18 months ago.  lnstead, I was reborn after I received a liver from a young man who passed away, but saved my life. A true hero, he will always be part of me. His legacy will continue through my life. This is my story. A story of undeserved grace...

Our precious little Ruby Jade Ballack was born on Wednesday, 21st of November, 2001. Her name, Ruby, was chosen by her father, Wayne, before she was born, as rubies are his favourite stone.  When Ruby made her entrance into the world at 08h05 that morning, weighing...

I was diagnosed with Stage 3 focal segmental glomerular sclerosis (FSGS) in 2012, just a few months after our oldest son was born. This came as a massive shock to us because I had never felt sick. It was during my pregnancy (around the 32-week mark) when the doctor...

Some of my earliest memories revolve around hospitals and doctors, since they have always been an integral part of my life. Without a miraculous intervention by doctors when I was about 10 months old, a viral infection might have killed me. From that time on, I...

I cannot remember a time when my brother was well. That is, not until he received my kidney 30 years ago. I was born in 1964, and Christopher was born in 1967. We have no other siblings.  When Chris was 8 months old, and I was just turning three, he contracted a...