WHEN Fridah Nkabinde’s legs swelled to five times their size 24 years ago, she thought life couldn’t get any worse.
But a year later she lost her husband to a younger woman. Fridah’s husband moved his new wife from the farm where they lived and built her a new house in the township!
Fridah was left alone. Doctors told her she suffered from elephantiasis, the enlarging and thickening of tissue in the limbs.
The 64-year-old from Kromhoek farm near Amersfoort in Mpumalanga said she’s accepted her miserable, lonely life and wishes her husband well. But she needs help to cure the illness that brought her life to a standstill.
“It began in 1992 while I was working on the farm with my husband. I constantly felt tired and could not understand why. A year later my legs had swollen massively and I could no longer move. I was bedridden.”
Her legs are so swollen she now needs help to go to the toilet and bath.
“Each time I have to go and see a doctor, I have to fork out R500 to hire a car. My daughter Sibongile is unemployed. We survive on my disability grant.”
Makane Nkabinde confirmed that he took another wife about 23 years ago. He claimed he stopped helping Fridah because her medical needs cost a lot of money which he didn’t have. “I’m a farm worker and don’t earn much. I’ll see what I can do for her at the end of the month,” he said.
Source: dailysun
