While she will always remember her as a little girl with ponytails, 25-year-old Vanessa Neveling – who died last week after a double lung transplant – left a massive legacy by raising awareness of cystic fibrosis and organ donations, says nurse Madeliese Lemmer.
Neveling last week became the first person from Nelson Mandela Bay to receive a double lung transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital.
The new programme, the first in the public sector in Africa, was started last year.
Neveling died on Saturday due to surgical complications.
“I first met her when she was still a young child,” Lemmer, a nurse at the Netcare Cuyler Clinic, said.
“I will always remember her as the girl with the pigtails.”
She said that during the decade that Neveling was often hospitalised they had become very close.
“Her dream was to create awareness of cystic fibrosis and I think she managed to make that come true,” Lemmer said.
“I am so heartbroken about her death, but I think she went into that theatre knowing that she would be receiving her lungs.”
In a 2015 interview with Weekend Post, Neveling said her life’s dream was to spread awareness of cystic fibrosis, a congenital disease affecting one in about 2,000 children.
There is no cure for the disease but lung transplants have helped to extend lives.
“She was such a positive person. She really struggled to get onto the list for a double lung transplant. We were delighted when she let us know last week that she was getting new lungs,” Lemmer said.
“In my mind I see her laughing with the angels. She had this gift to make friends.
“While she was in Cape Town we spoke on the phone often. She loved modelling for pictures. She lived fully every day.”
The nurses at the hospital’s paediatric unit where she had been hospitalised will be organising a memorial service.
Another Nelson Mandela Bay resident who met Neveling first on Facebook through her awareness work, said he and his fellow marines had given her a “marine-style” send-off on Saturday.
“She was the tiniest person but the bravest human I have ever met,” former marine Peter Moore said.
Moore, who is also waiting for a double lung transplant at Grootte Schuur Hospital, said he was devastated by her death.
“I was going to give her my marine badge when she woke up after the surgery to honour her courage,” he said.
On July 7, Moore swam 7km in an icy Sundays River to raise awareness for organ donation and for Neveling’s trust.
He added that he felt very angry that there were not more organ donors in SA and that Neveling could not be helped earlier.
“She should not have died. There should have been lungs for her a long time ago,” he said.
Since Neveling’s death scores of people who followed her on social media have signed Madeliese Lemmer ORGAN DONATIONS NURSE
up to become organ donors and started posting pictures of their new cards on social media.
“What an amazing legacy for her to leave behind,” Moore said. “She was such a fighter. She was an absolute hero. I am so proud of her.
“I am determined to keep her legacy going. We will make that 7km swim on July 7 a big thing for organ donor awareness,” he said.
One of the organisers of the annual Wildsfees, Jennifer Honsbein, said she had first met Neveling in 2012 when she heard that she was keen to attend the festival.
“We arranged VIP access for her as she came aided with nursing staff.
“She couldn’t get a lift through in 2016 but I went to fetch her. But by then she got tired too quickly.
“I arranged for her to view the audience from the main stage (where singer Desmond Wells was performing). She adored Desmond,” Honsbein said.
Wells said he was really struggling to deal with Neveling’s death.
“We became friends about five years ago. She wrote me a message on Facebook saying my song Savannah’s Smile was the most beautiful song she had ever heard.
“After that I would visit her in the hospital and she came to three of my shows. On the night she heard she was getting new lungs she phoned me and I was overwhelmed by the joy I felt for her,” he said.
Wells sang Savannah’s Smile at a memorial service held for Neveling in Cape Town on Monday.
DJ and radio personality Jacques Arendt said he had met Neveling when she was only 13. “In all the years I knew her she never once complained. We raised funds to buy her a portable oxygen tank. She was one of the most amazing people I had ever met.
“It is because of her that I am also signing up to become an organ donor,” he said.
Marilyn Ferreira of the Organ Donor Foundation said August wasOrgan Donor Month. “We have 260, 511 registered donors on our database, bearing in mind that our database was only started in 2012. Last year the ODF registered 35,217 people as donors – this averages almost 3,000 registrations per month.”