1 July 2015<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Two year ago,\u00a0Nongilani Pokolwana\u00a0was pain-ridden and increasingly anxious about her failing health.<\/p>\n

The 56-year-old mother of three had developed severe, debilitating chest and back pain, which had left her unable to carry out even the most basic of household chores.<\/p>\n

Repeated visits to her local clinic in rural Mbashe had failed to diagnose the source of her pain, or offer any treatment plan beyond a handful of pain tablets.<\/p>\n

When the Donald Woods Foundation visited Nongilani in early\u00a02013 as part of their innovative Health in Every Hut (HieH) screening programme, she was desperate. \u201cI knew something was wrong,\u201d she says. \u201cI was in a lot of pain every day and the pills they gave me at the clinic did not help at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DWF\u2019s Sister Stella Bili (pictured above) \u2013 affectionately known as Mama B to her thousands of rural patients \u2013 measured Nongilani\u2019s blood pressure and glucose levels, and tested for a range of potentially undiagnosed conditions such as HIV and TB.<\/p>\n

Based on the location of her pain, as well as the referred pain in her back, Sister Bili also decided to perform a thorough breast exam \u2013 which immediately revealed the presence of a lump in her left breast.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe immediately told me what it could be and what we needed to do,\u201d Nongilani says. \u201cI was very scared but Mama B told me everything that was going to happen and what I needed to do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sister Bili referred Nongilani to the local hospital and facilitated her transport there. A subsequent biopsy in East London, 400km away, confirmed that the lump in her breast was cancerous. And while the treatment Nongilani eventually received, in East London and later in Cape Town, could not save her breast, she has little doubt that Mama B\u2019s diligence and care almost certainly saved her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cMama B came every week to see how I was doing, and always asked what I needed and how she could help.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After her diagnosis and initial treatment, Nongilani continued to be visited by a DWF community health worker (CHOW) every week to assess her recovery. And when she developed internal complications a few months after her initial surgery, the DWF Chow assigned to her care immediately arranged for her to be referred back to the local hospital for follow-up care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Donald Woods Foundation has helped us so much since I became sick,\u201d Nongilani says. \u201cI think Mama B saved my life, and she is still helping me even today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 July 2015 Two year ago,\u00a0Nongilani Pokolwana\u00a0was pain-ridden and increasingly anxious about her failing health. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[113,128,104,129],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7DEjh-171","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4294,"url":"https:\/\/www.donaldwoodsfoundation.org\/meet-xolelwa-joni-who-beat-xdr-tb\/","url_meta":{"origin":4279,"position":0},"title":"Meet Xolelwa Joni who beat XDR-TB","date":"November 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"2 November 2015 My name is Xolelwa Joni and I have survived extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). I am now a Donald Woods Foundation Peer Educator and ambassador in the fight against TB. I was born on the 8th of August 1983 in East London. I am a twin and I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Donald Woods Foundation"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4253,"url":"https:\/\/www.donaldwoodsfoundation.org\/donald-woods-reburied-at-ancestral-home-in-transkei\/","url_meta":{"origin":4279,"position":1},"title":"Donald Woods reburied at ancestral home in Transkei","date":"September 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Internationally acclaimed anti-apartheid activist and former Daily Dispatch editor Donald Woods has been reburied, alongside his wife Wendy and their infant son Lindsay, at Woods\u2019 ancestral home in Hobeni in the former Transkei. 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Delegates have the option of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Donald Woods Foundation"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4789,"url":"https:\/\/www.donaldwoodsfoundation.org\/our-cumulative-milestones\/","url_meta":{"origin":4279,"position":4},"title":"Our cumulative milestones","date":"July 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Donald Woods Foundation (DWF) has achieved notable milestones in its area of operations making a significant difference to the health and well-being of thousands of people. 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Inherently active, she spent her days tending her home and her family, looking after children and making sure everyone was as well cared for as her meagre resources\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Donald Woods Foundation"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.donaldwoodsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.donaldwoodsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.donaldwoodsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.donaldwoodsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.donaldwoodsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.donaldwoodsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.donaldwoodsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.donaldwoodsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.donaldwoodsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}