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Nicola needs help for life-changing surgery

A former Tzaneen resident and Merensky High School learner, Nicola Jansen van Vuuren (26), is pleading for help to undergo life-changing surgery early next year.

Nicola worked as a reporter at the Herald but now lives in Gauteng where she is a journalist at the Roodepoort Northsider. She was diagnosed with Gardner’s Syndrome in 2019. In this rare inherited condition, the sufferer develops hundreds and sometimes thousands of abnormal growths in their large and small intestines. Nicola has hundreds of these polyps in her colon and small intestines that may cause early-onset colon cancer.

Within a month of being diagnosed in 2019, she had a laparoscopic subtotal colectomy whereby her small bowel was connected to the last part of her colon, the rectum. After the procedure, she went for routine checkups to ensure the remaining polyps did not become cancerous.

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“At the end of last year, I had a horrible experience where I couldn’t keep anything down and I was in a lot of pain. I went to a local hospital, and they had no idea what was wrong. “I called my trusted doctor, Dr Bhavesh Gordhan, and he asked to see me immediately. We found polyps have grown inside my stomach.

Some of the polyps in my duodenum were a cancer risk and had to be removed and biopsied. “He told us that we were fighting for my stomach now. I need to have it removed,” explained Nicola. She has already undergone surgery to remove a soft tissue mass from her lower abdomen for oncologists to help plan a way forward for her condition. She is currently fundraising for the surgery and so far R36 000 has been donated, which is still a long way to the targeted R250 000.

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Anwen Mojela

Anwen Mojela is a journalist at the Letaba Herald. She graduated with an Advanced Diploma in Journalism at the Tshwane University of Technology. Including an internship and freelancing, Anwen has four years’ experience in the field and has been a permanent name in the Herald for nearly three years. Anwen’s career highlights include a water corruption investigative story when she was an intern and delving into wildlife and nature conservation. “I became a journalist mainly to be the voice of the voiceless, especially working for a community newspaper. Helping with the bit that I can, makes choosing journalism worth it.

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