April 2023 - Lowveld

the hallway …”
At the time, the man lying opposite
Robin was fighting a serious heart
condition. At one point, he was
pleading with the nurses to bring him
a glass of water, but they paid him
absolutely no attention, Rob recollects.
“So I got up and fetched him a glass of
water, a seemingly meaningless task
that would change our way of doing
things for the rest of our lives. The man
was so grateful, and thanked me with
tears in his eyes. The moment inspired
me to make an oath to our Creator that
if it was cancer and he would spare me
for another 10 years, I would do my
part in paying it forward and making a
difference. I phoned up Jolandie and
told her about my experience, and she
agreed to start up an NPO with me.
She named it Numinous Expeditions.”
The doctors couldn’t do much for
Robin at Rob Ferreira, and after
three painful bone marrow biopsies,
they referred the pair to Steve Biko
in Pretoria, giving the diagnosis of
aplastic anemia (bone marrow failure).
“They eventually told us that the only
possible chance of surviving would be
to undergo a stem cell transplant, and
the only government facility that was
able to do it is Groote Schuur in Cape
Town,” he explains. So they hopped
on a flight, and Groote Schuur did a
final bone marrow biopsy to try to get
behind the diagnosis. One of the main
issues was to find a match that would
be compatible for the transplant, but
there wasn’t a single 100% match for
Rob in the world. “My sister was found
to be a 50% match - not ideal, but it
was my only chance,” he says.
On top of all this, the couple were
engaged to be married and had
already started planning their wedding.
The doctor at Groote Schuur told
them to go home, get married, and
prepare to move down to Cape Town
for the duration of the treatment
and recovery. Their wedding came,
a beautiful day filled with laughter
and joy despite all the uncertainty
surrounding them. Then, two days
later, Robin’s phone rang. “I should
have chucked it in the river by then,”
he laughs. It was the doctor from
Cape Town and she had bad news.
“She said she wanted to wait until we
had gotten married to tell me I had
been diagnosed with blood cancer
- leukemia (MDS). We had to get to
‘I smiled, knowing
that I had been given
the decade I had asked
for. A strange calmness
came over me’
Cape Town ASAP, making the difficult
decision to close up our business and
sell off our possessions.”
With the support of friends and family,
the couple headed off. On arrival, they
were disappointed to find out that
one more test needed to be run, and
they’d have to wait another week for
the outcome. They kept themselves
busy with Numinous Expeditions,
Jewellery that is sold at markets
Robin and Jolandie Lewis
which had by now become a passion.
When the diagnosis came, it wasn’t
good. “The doctor explained that I
had been diagnosed with a rare and
incurable disease called Fanconi
anaemia,” Robin says, “which causes
cancers throughout a person’s life and
was ultimately the cause behind the
leukaemia. She said if I were to survive
the transplant process, I would only
have a life expectancy of another 10
years. I smiled, knowing that I had
been given the decade I had asked
for. A strange calmness came over me,
unusual under the circumstances, but
it felt right.”
They booked in for the transplant the
following week, never imagining what
they would have to go through. The
doctors said they would have to be
in Cape Town for six months, but they
ended up having to stay for two years
as a result of complications. “I’m not
going to go into much detail about
the treatment itself, but I invite anyone
who is going through something
similar to contact us. Jolandie nursed
me for five months in isolation, and
when I finally got discharged with my
new stem cells, I was pretty weak and
unable to work,” Rob says.
Realising they had to find a way of
earning an income, Jolandie came
up with the idea of sustainable
jewellery to sell at the local markets.
As a result of Robin’s condition, they
also started exploring alternative
diets, transitioning to a plant-based
April 2023 Get It Lowveld 15