'She plays like a normal child now. She is unstoppable'
She was expected to die before her fourth birthday.
Now she is a happy four-year-old who plays with dolls and poses for cameras, nine months after her Christmas wish for a liver transplant was granted by a Johannesburg radio station that raised R420000 for the operation.
Her mother, Felicity Madikane, a paramedic contracted to the Mogale City municipality, in Krugersdorp, on the West Rand, said: "Thandile is a star. She sings and talks a lot now. She loves dancing more these days, and she is unstoppable.
"Her behaviour has changed since her operation. She plays like a normal child now."
It was an e-mail to 94.7 Highveld Stereo from Stacey Bossenger, the mother of another liver transplant patient, that led to Thandile's life-saving operation.
The station has run its Christmas Wish List project for eight years.
Thandile's transplant brought an end to years of her hospital hell because of biliary atresia, a progressive liver disorder that developed shortly after her birth.
"At six weeks, I noticed there was a problem with Thandile. She had a yellowish skin. She was not gaining weight and her stools were white," her mother said.
Thandile was diagnosed with biliary atresia and, after sleepless nights and endless hospital visits, her mother, who does not have medical insurance and could not afford a transplant, met Bossenger at the Donald Gordon Medical Centre, in Johannesburg.
Moved by Madikane's plight, Bossenger, whose daughter Jenna had a liver transplant at the centre, sent an e-mail to Highveld Stereo in December in which she told Thandile's story.
Station manager Ravi Naidoo told The Times that the Christmas Wish List extended from life-saving needs, such as Thandile's, to fulfilling wishes for education and groceries for a family.
"This wish was particularly moving because it came from a mother whose own child suffered from the same condition but was able to have the operation," he said.
Three months before the wish was granted, Bossenger and Madikane were contacted by the Donald Gordon Medical Centre and told there might be a liver available.
If the liver were too big for Jenna, it would be given to Thandile. But Jenna got the organ and Thandile and her mother were sent home.
Madikane said: "I didn't want to give up hope for my daughter's life, though I was struggling to make ends meet. It was tough."
Her municipality collected about R80000. Then Gold Reef City resorts came up with R420000.
The breakfast show team went to Madikane's home and told her the news.
In February, a liver donor was identified and Thandile had her transplant operation and was discharged a week later. She takes 13 tablets a day and has weekly check-ups.
"I'll never forget the day the Highveld people came to the house. They surprised us," said Madikane. "Stacey, Gold Reef City, Highveld and Mogale City saved my baby's life."
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