Brave Bongi’s will to live is bringing solace to others
SHE’S the latest sensation on Facebook, with two accounts that have reached the 5 000 mark.
But those who have crossed paths with Bongi “Womuhle” Pearl Mdluli will know there’s more to her than a high tally of friends, gorgeous looks and a love for fashion. The 21-year-old from Bergville in KwaZulu-Natal has become an agony aunt, life coach and an inspiration.
Logging into Mdluli’s account, it is not hard to see why. Apart from motivational posts and calling friends her “siblings”, her confidence shines – although she lost a leg to childhood cancer.
“I get inbox messages from people telling me how I have touched their lives. Some are not even mutual friends.
“Old people tell me of battling with diseases and wanting to give up, but that they find hope and solace in my story.”
Mdluli lost her leg in 2006 after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a bone tumour prevalent among young children and teens.
“I was 13 and in Grade 6 when I collapsed at school and hurt my knee. I had just lost my maternal grandmother. She died of cancer.”
But the alarm did not ring immediately for Mdluli and her parents. They assumed she just had a swelling on her leg that would fade. It didn’t. The former Vereeniging General Smuts High School pupil was referred to the Chris Hani Baragwaneth Academic Hospital, where tests confirmed she had a tumour just above her knee.
The doctors said the cancer would spread to her womb if nothing was done.
Her panicky parents were told their daughter’s leg needed to be amputated.
They consulted other relatives and refused permission for the amputation.
Mdluli defiantly signed forms giving doctors permission to amputate her leg.
“I had two options. To amputate or risk dying,” Mdluli said. “I chose to live.”
She said she was surprised at how mature she was – and all she wanted was to go back to school. But nothing prepared her for her “new life”.
While everyone helped her during her last year of primary school, her first two years of high school were unbearable. Pupils mocked her. “I was sharp with anyone who dared to come my way. I built a wall to protect myself from hurting.”
But her cousin’s death in Grade 11 and later her brother’s changed the way in which she viewed the world.
Mdluli said her pain showed that life was too short to be angry. Today she runs a youth development programme, Confidence Driven, and has more requests for friends on the Facebook site than she is allowed to accept.