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On 8 March 2023 , Mbali Hlela Bulunga, a 12-year-old girl, passed through a portal of pain and went to her peace, after first being diagnosed with leukaemia six years earlier.
ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKAEMIA

Confronting grief, Part 3: Hope crests and crashes

Mbali’s second round of treatment first seemed to have worked. And then, six years after her first diagnosis of leukaemia, we had to face what no family is ever ready to face

  • Nontobeko Hlela
11 min read
On 8 March, Mbali Hlela Bulunga, a 12-year-old girl, passed through a portal of pain and went to her peace, after first being diagnosed with leukaemia six years earlier.
ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKAEMIA

Confronting grief, Part 2: The hard road back to hope

Cancer can take a child’s life. The treatment can save that life, but it shatters life as it was before the disease struck

  • Nontobeko Hlela
7 min read
Dr Ane Buchner and Sister Edith with Mbali
ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKAEMIA

Confronting grief Part 1: Our world caves in

A cancer diagnosis for a child is shattering. Some nurses empathise, others don’t

  • Nontobeko Hlela
7 min read