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DA deputy and shadow communications minister Phumzile van Damme was inspired by American actor Chadwick Boseman’s silent fight against cancer and spoke about her own diagnosis of a neurological disease.
Boseman’s family announced his death on Friday in a statement on Twitter. They said he was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in 2016, which had progressed to stage five at the time of his death. Many praised him for his contribution to the arts as they quietly fought for his life.
In a long Twitter thread, Van Damme urged people to be nice to each other, as “everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about.”
She shared that she often felt ill while traveling during the election campaign last year, but dismissed it as tired because “there was work to be done.”
“It was so bad that one day I woke up and could barely walk. I forced myself to get up, leaned against the walls, showered, and went on a march. I was tired, but you had to work, so I worked. It was a march, I walked it, flew home, rested and flew back the next day, ”he wrote.
Van Damme said that at one point, she was wearing a neck brace and her voice was hoarse.
“I went to see an otolaryngologist and he found nothing wrong. I struggled and kept working. I did my job, all while fighting political battles … “he wrote.
It wasn’t until he traveled to the United States in September last year that he became ill again and an MRI revealed that he had spots on his brain. She said her initial assumption was that she was “dying” and had multiple sclerosis.
“Anyway, I finally got an appointment with a neurologist, I was so scared that my husband had to come with me. I was ready to receive the news that I was dying but I did not let him see this and put on a brave face.
“He did some tests and the diagnosis was a functional neurological disorder … there is no cure in the conventional sense, you live with it and you learn. It can go into remission, ”she wrote.
Rare Diseases SA says that Functional Neurological Disorder or FND “is a medical condition in which there is a problem with the functioning of the nervous system and how the body sends or receives signals, rather than a structural disease process such as multiple sclerosis or stroke. ” .
The organization says there are ongoing studies and research on the causes of NDF. It says that some patients have pre-existing conditions that increase the risk of getting NDF. They include pre-existing neurological conditions, fatigue or stress, and chronic pain.
Van Damme said she is grateful her condition is not serious and says her family supports her.
