Standing Strong

Media personality PHUMEZA, 29, and her musician husband MNQOBI MDAMBE aka SHOTA faced their biggest challenge when their son became blind after contracting eye cancer. Here’s this family’s story of triumph.

- Phila Tyekana

September is child cancer awareness month and never had I imagined it would have a personal impact on me. Neither did I think I would be the face of the Childhood Cancer Foundation, South Africa (CHOC).

My son Mpilo was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma at 16 months. His eyes started going squint and it appeared he couldn’t see properly, so I thought he’ll probably just need glasses. My sister in law advised that we take him to a doctor to fix the squint. However, my husband Mnqobi and I started noticing that his pupils had a white ring around them and it was more evident when he was in the sun. We were so naïve about it all. My dad is German, so we thought maybe Mpilo’s eye colour was still going to change. He wasn’t acting oddly or showing any signs he was in pain. All kids fall sick and he was teething around that time so we thought nothing of it. Three months later, he started losing his vision, which is when I took him back to the doctor. The optometrist then referred us to an eye specialist who referred us to the Johannesburg Eye Hospital in Northcliff. The specialist there was the one who eventually gave us the diagnosis that he had cancer. The entire time I was still hopeful it wasn’t anything serious and that if it was, the doctor would fix it.

My mind literally refused to process the bad news and I kept asking the doctor to repeat himself. I was confused and in shock; what was happening, my poor baby, why him, why us, why didn’t I pick this up earlier, what now, is he going to die? Overwhelmed, Mnqobi and I broke down and cried.