She's the picture of health – glowing skin, glossy hair, beaming smile. And as she walked to the stage to collect the PhD degree she’d worked so hard for, nobody would’ve been able to tell she has four titanium plates in her skull nor know that 25% of her brain was removed when she was in her teens.

Amy Martin’s achievement is nothing short of inspirational. She was 14 when her health issues started, the 33-year-old tells us from her family’s home in Moorreesburg in the Western Cape. She was sitting at the dinner table with her parents, Lilian and Barry, and younger sister, Nina, when something strange happened.

“The fork suddenly fell from my hand and I couldn’t move my left side,” Amy recalls. “When I tried to tell my parents what I was experiencing, I suddenly couldn’t speak properly.”

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