OCT 2019 - Jhb North

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TO THE POWER OF PLAX Text: LISA WITEPSKI. Photo: PETER WHITFIELD. Make-up: GESHIKA VORSTER. Hair: BLUSH HAIR BAR ‘I don’t want to be known as the girl who had cancer,’ Plaxedes Makura muses. Not that it’s likely. Being remembered as the girl who was twice nominated as one of the Top 50 Future Female Leaders (a global ranking, by the way) – sure. The girl who, at just 37, heads a team of 20 people at an international law firm – definitely. The girl who turned her hand to fundraising, and successfully changed someone’s life because she felt she had a responsibility – yup. It’s only this last accomplishment – a rather outstanding one – that focuses attention on an even greater achievement: Choosing to fight against a disease that, just like the trainers she takes on in the boxing ring (her favourite hobby), insisted on going round after round. Plax’s journey with cancer started in May last year, when she noticed a lump above her left breast. With no family history of the disease and no reason to think she was anything but perfectly healthy (having recently started her boxing regime, she was feeling superfit), she ignored it. Even so, she couldn’t silence the nagging fear that something was wrong, so a few weeks later, she found herself tearing up while telling her friend, Justine, of her discovery. Coincidentally, Plax had a gynae appointment the following week. She was tremendously relieved when the doctor told her everything looked fine, despite the lump. Then the gynae suggested that, as she’s a worrier, she might as well have further tests done – after all, she was already at the hospital. A mammogram and sonar were both clear, but the radiologist recommended a biopsy, just in case. Five days later, when Plax hadn’t heard from the doctor, she decided to check in. ‘He told me the results hadn’t yet been delivered and phoned the radiology department. He phoned back and asked if I’d like to come in – but I told him he should just tell me what he had to say. He wouldn’t have asked me to see him if the news was good.’ With her family scattered around the world, from Zimbabwe to the UK and Germany, Plax’s first move was to phone Justine, who left work to meet her and later accompanied her to her first appointment with a surgeon. ‘Although I’d broken down when I first heard the news, I still couldn’t believe I had the disease until my surgeon gave me a book about surviving breast cancer. That’s when it became real.’ Too often we take things for granted, including the fact that we’ll be here tomorrow Plax had surgery to remove the lump, as well as her lymph nodes, as soon as possible, and embarked on a course of Herceptin (immunetargeted treatment) because her cancer diagnosis showed she was HER2 positive. ‘I had a lot of ups and downs at the time,’ she recalls. ‘My first thought was: I’m dying. I’d never been exposed to cancer before, so I didn’t know there are a host of treatments and options. After a while, I realised there are no guarantees in life, but you can at least try to fight.’ One of her greatest weapons in the fight was exercise. ‘People underestimate the power of endorphins,’ she says, noting that exercise – even if it was nothing more than a light weights session – helped to manage the side effects of chemotherapy. ‘Often, I faked feeling better than I really was, because I didn’t want the people around me to worry. At the same time, I was determined my life wasn’t going to degenerate into a pity party. I still went out with my friends, I still wore heels, I started wearing more make-up so I didn’t look sick when my hair and eyebrows fell out.’ Then came the hardest blow – during a routine check-up, Plax’s doctor found another lump. ‘I told my closest friends what had happened, then I switched off my phone and checked out. I couldn’t understand why this had happened – I was on chemo, for goodness’ sake! I also couldn’t fathom what the point was and why I should continue my fight.’ Ironically, that dark thought turned into a shining light. ‘I realised I didn’t want my fight to have been in vain. I wanted to be able to look back on this time and be able to say, “Oh, that’s why it happened,”– not just accept it as the most difficult period in my life to date.’ The idea for Pink Power was born out of this determination to create meaning from her experience, and from conversations she had with friends and her boxing trainers at EFC Gym Sandton. So the first Pink Power event came about – a fund-raising fitness event put together in just four weeks which successfully raised R46 200 for a fellow cancer patient. ‘I was lucky – I had a good job and was on medical aid, yet there were still times when I battled financially. I wanted to be able to help someone who didn’t have those advantages – 18 Get It Joburg Northern Suburbs October 2019
Lawyer, philanthropist, global go-getter and cancer survivor, Plaxedes Makura (or Plax, as she’s better known) shows there’s nothing more powerful than a reason to live not someone who could make a plan, but someone who was in real need.’ Her beneficiary was a woman who’d been forced to stop her hormone therapy early because she could no longer afford it, and who’d recently been diagnosed with spinal cancer. Plax says she cried when she read her beneficiary’s thank you, and was humbled by the thought that a team of people had brought about a change without waiting for a charity to take action. To her, it proved the power of possibility. Although Plax will be on hormone therapy for the next five years to balance the excess oestrogen levels cancer cells thrive on, her cancer is in remission and she’s setting her sights on raising even more funds through Pink Power – at least R100 000. Her determination is typical of her energy – she’s always asking, ‘What next?’ And what’s next is pretty big –why stop at an annual event, she asks, or one that’s limited to Johannesburg? The palpable energy that envelops Plax was undoubtedly honed during her fight with cancer: ‘My motto is, Dum spiro, spero (While I breathe, I hope). Too often we take things for granted, including the fact that we’ll be here tomorrow, and so will our loved ones. Or we stop ourselves doing something we want to do because we worry about what others will think. I don’t want to live like that. I want to look back and know I made the most of every moment.’ Pink Power Fitness Day takes place on October 12 at The Park, House of Events on 7 in Hyde Park. Details: Follow Pink Power on Instagram (pinkpower_2018) or email Plax on plaxmakura@gmail.com to donate, sponsor or participate. Tickets available via quicket.co.za How to help Plax’s tips for supporting a friend with a cancer diagnosis: • It’s OK to be vulnerable – you can cry. After all, you love your friend, so this affects you, too. Don’t feel you need to apologise for being sad. • Give her the space to deal with her emotions instead of constantly reassuring her that everything will be all right. Let her be angry and sad when those feelings arise. • Let your actions speak for you – they mean so much more than words. • Keep her involved. Let her decide for herself if she isn’t up to going out – don’t make that choice for her. October 2019 Get It Joburg Northern Suburbs 19
Page 1: JOBURG NORTHERN SUBURBS Add pops of
Page 4 and 5: A hot date! Occasions to celebrate
Page 6 and 7: Wild mango butter Leaf of life Alpi
Page 8 and 9: Wish list We’re oh-so-pleased wit
Page 10 and 11: Simon and Jamie Kearns Kids get cre
Page 12 and 13: Three cheers Fiona Snyckers’ late
Page 15 and 16: Anja Wiggett, Marli Delport, Lize K
Page 17: GROWing a nation You may not be fam
Page 21: action Do you believe TV presenters
Page 24 and 25: Lancôme’s new Hypnose Palette gi
Page 27 and 28: Relaxed. Refreshed. REVIVED! A larg
Page 29 and 30: Cheeky bikini bottoms, R320 from Gr
Page 31 and 32: Midweek family fare Friday night di
Page 33 and 34: I scream. You scream. We seriously
Page 35 and 36: PROMOTION Your breakfast essentials
Page 37 and 38: Mother-and-son team, Joy and Garron
Page 39 and 40: Kai pod chair, R8695 from Weylandts
Page 41 and 42: Here comes the sun - and we can’t
Page 44 and 45: GET IT DIRECTORY Registered hypnoth
Page 46 and 47: GET IT DIRECTORY Pineslopes. Above
Page 48 and 49: BEACH HOUSE DREAMS There’s someth
Page 50 and 51: Spoil October Win a hamper of the m

OCT 2019 - Jhb North

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