Cele goes from sadness to success
Thembelihle Cele lost her father in her third year of her undergraduate degree.
She was shattered. He had been the family’s sole breadwinner, and they survived on his pension.
But Ms Cele, a driven young woman, turned tragedy into triumph, when she put all her effort into studying to make her father proud. In May she graduated cum laude with her Honours in medical science from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Ms Cele, 22, is from Port Shepstone, uGu District, but currently lives in Durban as she completes her studies. She has enrolled to do her Master’s over the next two years and will then do her Doctorate in philosophy.
Ms Cele works part time as a laboratory demonstrator at UKZN medical school – she wants to teach one day and has already got a head start.
“I always dreamed of being a doctor but I was rejected to study medicine. I then enrolled in medical science and fell in love with anatomy,” she said.
“It was my dream to graduate cum laude and I am thrilled. I worked hard for this. I have always been obsessed with success. I know well that for me education is the only key to success. As I further my studies I would like to specialise in neuroanatomy and neurosurgery, mainly focusing on the diseases affecting the brain and the cures - particularly focusing on the ones affecting older people in our villages. I will also look at ways to improve surgical procedure of the head, mainly the brain, to limit the mortality rate after surgeries.”
Ms Cele has been invited to share an abstract from her Honours project - Craniofacial Form and Masseter Muscle - at the XXVIII International Symposium on Morphological Sciences (ISMS) which will be hosted by the Anatomical Society of Southern Africa from Saturday to Tuesday 5 to 8 August, in Cape Town.
She dedicated her Honours degree to her father, Manana Robert Cele who passed away on January 2, 2021 at the age of 60.
“This was a huge loss for all of us. For three months I was mentally and emotionally disturbed. But I chose to keep busy with school work. I didn’t want to disappoint my father.
“No one was working at home, my father’s pension was our only income. Fortunately, NSFAS funded my undergraduate degree and I was able to maintain my needs without asking for money from home. That motivated me to focus on my studies and finish my undergraduate degree in record time because I want to support my family as early as possible.
“My father gave me my name and it means Good Hope. He said I would bring hope for my family. I want to fulfil my father’s wish and make sure all my sisters succeed,” said Ms Cele.
Her father hoped she would become a magistrate; he could not stand the sight of blood. But she said he respected her choice to study science and supported her.
Ms Cele said her mother Thulisile Cele and her sisters support her and she will dedicate her master degree to these “superwomen” in her life.