Bianca really made difference
JUST two weeks ago Bianca- Anne Harper Agherdien was one of the belles of the ball at the glamorous Cirque du Couture fundraiser.
She looked gorgeous in a shimmering evening dress and was thrilled to have won a ticket to the stylish event, supporting her friends at the Provincial Hospital's Igazi Ward which treats patients with leukaemia and other blood cancers.
This week, she was lying at Life St George's hospital, her body broken and in need of the same life-giving blood – and then, agonising in particular for her loved ones, came the news that she had not made it through a second round of surgery yesterday to stop extensive internal bleeding.
Thousands of friends are now mourning the loss of this vibrant young life – she was just 28, newly wed to childhood sweetheart Anver Agherdien and on track for her PhD in pharmacy at Rhodes University.
As much as I do not really feel qualified to write her obituary – I only met Bianca when she entered and won The Herald Spec-Savers Miss Port Elizabeth 2010 competition – I want to shout out to the world how special she was.
I remember how Bianca, still living at home in Korsten with her parents Patty and Denzyl Harper, and big brother Charles, got home from the Miss PE gala in April 2010 and the neighbours came out into the street in their pyjamas to congratulate her.
But those who knew her all have different memories – the children at Missionvale Care Centre will remember her teaching them the Diski dance during the 2010 Fifa World Cup, and Sister Ethel Normoyle thought the world of her.
At KliniMed, where Deon Schoeman gave her a job as a student, there is still a poster of Bianca on the wall even though she left for state service months ago.
She had chosen pharmacy as a career because she loved helping people and spent her year of community service at Frere Hospital in East London.
This year, she moved to the Provincial Hospital and just recently to Dora Nginza Hospital.
Bianca and Anver lived out their Christian faith at work, home and play and worshipped at His Father's House in North End.
Her family, of course, will feel the loss most keenly including Charles's little boy Dante, whom she totally adored.
That adoration was shown on Wednesday when the South African National Blood Service was pumping – literally and figuratively – with people queuing up to donate blood to help save her life.
Our crazy mixed-up world needs blood, and not only our red and white corpuscles donated to SANBS, but also the metaphorical kind which makes your heart melt with love, beat with passion, swell with pride.
It is life. Share it, build up our communities through sharing it, heal with it.
Bianca may no longer need the blood so many offered for her, but as a medical professional she knew how important it was.
Not just for herself, but for those in the BMW which smashed into her car, and also for the mother with the difficult labour, and for the assault victim, and for many, many more.
It is a cliche to say "that's what Bianca would have wanted" of the blood donations, but she would – I have rarely met someone so compassionately human.
Yes, one person can make a difference to a city, especially the young woman who was once this city's "most beautiful ambassador". - Gillian McAinsh
