Awakening Doctor

What does it take to move beyond inherited roles and identities and become more fully ourselves? In this episode of Awakening Doctor , host Maria Christodoulou speaks with Dr Albert Viljoen, a medical doctor turned leadership coach and facilitator, about courage, identity, belonging, and the ongoing journey of becoming fully human. Albert shares his personal story of growing up with a doctor fathe...

Dr Anne Biccard has spent nearly three decades working on the frontlines of South Africa’s healthcare system, much of that time in the intensity and unpredictability of the emergency department. In this episode of Awakening Doctor, Anne speaks candidly about the stubborn determination that carried her through medical school, the realities of life in the ED, and the emotional cost of always having...

What are the odds that a young man from Sluma View, Katlehong, will find himself at Oxford University? Whatever they are, Dr Wonderful Thabiso Khumalo, medical doctor, Rhodes scholar, award-winning poet, and emerging global health researcher, has defied them.  In this episode of Awakening Doctor, Thabiso speaks candidly about growing up without his biological father, losing his mother as a teenage...

What might change if we allowed ourselves to really be with death? If we turned towards our mortality, rather than away from it? In this episode of Awakening Doctor, host Maria Christodoulou speaks with end-of-life doula, death educator, and writer Chloe Hope about what it takes to accompany people at the threshold between life and death. Chloe shares the childhood loss that shaped her relationshi...

Before she even graduates as a doctor, final-year medical student Sarah Stein is already asking questions many doctors avoid. Her widely published article, What They Don’t Teach in Medical School , in which she wrote candidly about moral distress, emotional isolation, and the realities of becoming a doctor in South Africa’s resource-constrained public health system, travelled far enough beyond the...

In this episode of Awakening Doctor, we meet Dr Lethukwenama Letsoalo, a medical doctor from Bergville in rural KwaZulu-Natal, whose personal journey into medicine and public health is deeply shaped by community, identity, and purpose. Lethukwenama reflects on growing up as the only girl in a household of seven children, the early inspiration that drew her to medicine, and the youthful certainty t...

What do you do when the plan you’re committed to doesn’t work out the way you’d hoped, but your sense of purpose stays the same?  Dr Bianca Leigh Edwards - or Dr B, as she’s affectionately known by her patients -  had her heart set on becoming a paediatric oncologist even in her teens. Life, however, had other plans.  In this episode of Awakening Doctor, we reflect on the early childhood influence...

From growing up among political exiles to advocating for the right to health and shaping national policy, Professor Lydia Cairncross's career traces the edges of the operating table and the front lines of social change. Voted one of Mail & Guardian's 50 most powerful women in 2022, she is a pioneering researcher in breast and endocrine surgery, and the first female Head of the Depart...

What would the world be like if we understood that each time a patient shares their story, they are inviting us into the sacred ground of their life? What wisdom might we gain from truly listening to those we aim to help? How might we transform our institutions to better serve our communities? For Professor Tasleem Ras, family physician, educator, researcher, and Head of UCT's Department of F...

In this episode of Awakening Doctor, we meet Dr Yumna Moosa, clinician-scientist, mathematician, mother, activist, and truth-teller. Fresh from her PhD graduation, Yumna speaks with striking honesty about navigating motherhood and dealing with the breakdown of her marriage while completing her studies. She reflects on how trauma can disrupt even the most resilient among us, and how the love and su...

What are the deeper reasons that draw us into the healing professions, and how do they shape the way we practice medicine? In this episode of Awakening Doctor, Dr Angela de Sá – family physician, integral coach, and senior lecturer at UCT's Department of Family, Community, and Emergency Care – reflects on the experiences that have shaped and defined her medical career. From childhood illness...

Professor Hennie Botha is a renowned gynaecological oncologist and the Executive Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Stellenbosch University. A leading clinician, teacher, mentor and researcher, with a particular interest in cervical cancer treatment and prevention.  In this episode of Awakening Doctor , Prof Botha joins Dr Maria Christodoulou to reflect on his leadership journey and medical car...

Servant leadership is not a job description; it’s a way of being. One that Professor Beth Engelbrecht has embodied with rare clarity and quiet conviction across more than three decades of public service in South Africa.  In this episode of Awakening Doctor, we learn about her extraordinary personal and professional journey from young district surgeon to transformative leader shaping a more ethical...

As a child, Dr. Anita Parbhoo waited in the car outside Cape Town’s world-renowned Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital while her father did pre-med ward rounds. Today, she leads that very same hospital as its CEO, and her innovative leadership contributions are setting a benchmark for excellence in child health services nationwide. In this episode of Awakening Doctor, we trace her journey f...

What happens when you walk away from the life everyone expects you to live?  In this episode of Awakening Doctor, Dr. Aisha Moolla shares her personal story of walking away from a career in clinical medicine midway through her internship - not because she couldn’t do it, but because she finally surrendered to the truth that she didn’t want to. Now a PhD candidate at the University of Sheffield, Ai...

Is it okay for a doctor to decide that medicine is not the nucleus of their life? In this episode of Awakening Doctor, we sit down with Dr. Hloni Bookholane, author of Becoming a Doctor: Learnings and unlearnings about life and the politics of medicine , to discuss his decision to walk away from clinical medicine shortly after completing his community service - a choice he likens to a difficult bu...

Dr. Rosemary Pitsi is a dedicated young doctor currently working at a tertiary hospital in South Africa's North West province. She is also the founder of Book Buddies , a literacy initiative for underprivileged children, and co-founder of Medtimes , a medical rostering platform designed to streamline scheduling for healthcare workers and institutions. In this episode of Awakening Doctor, we e...

Prof. Nomafrench Mbombo is a distinguished leader with over three decades of experience spanning healthcare, academia, politics, and public service; a woman with an unwavering commitment to social justice, equitable healthcare and the empowerment of marginalised communities. In this episode of Awakening Doctor, we learn about her humble beginnings in Mdantsane township, her thwarted ambitions to g...

From her achievement as the Miss South Africa runner-up in 2021 to her impactful roles as medical doctor, health advocate and social media influencer, Dr Moratwe Masima is determined to redefine what it means to be a health professional in the 21st century.  In this episode of Awakening Doctor, we explore her commitment to living an intentional life, the courage to dream big, and the tension betwe...

In this inspiring episode of Awakening Doctor, senior family physician and MBChB Programme Coordinator at Nelson Mandela University, Professor Elma de Vries, reflects on her journey of growing up in apartheid-era South Africa to becoming a passionate advocate for marginalised communities and a leading champion for gender-affirming care.   Drawing on a rich tapestry of personal and professional exp...

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to endure the sleepless nights and emotional highs and lows of being a doctor? In this episode of Awakening Doctor, Dr. Danielle Botma offers an intimate glimpse into the life of a junior doctor in South Africa's public healthcare system. Through the lens of her personal story, we’re made aware of the stark contrast between the idealism that drives young...

In this episode of Awakening Doctor, we meet Dr Yonela Sanelisiwe Kentane, a young doctor standing at the threshold of her medical career after completing six years of medical school, two years of internship, and one year of community service in South Africa’s public healthcare system.  As she navigates the uncertainty of her next steps and reveals the struggle to balance personal life with profes...

Is it possible to be a full human being when your profession demands so much of you? Does being a clinician require you to be removed from your patient’s experience, or from your own experience as you witness theirs? What is it that we need to protect in medicine? These are the questions that Dr Nabeela Kajee, medical doctor, writer, thinker, poet and Rhodes scholar, grapples with as she navigates...

What distinguishes a 21st-century paediatrician working in a resource-constrained setting from his predecessors? This is the question at the heart of Professor Regan Solomon’s leadership vision and one that he unassumingly answers with his own presence and way of being in the world. A highly esteemed Paediatric Neurologist and the Executive Head of Paediatrics and Child Health at Tygerberg Hospita...

In considering the landscape of modern healthcare, the conversation often centres around technological advancements, groundbreaking treatments, and cutting-edge research. In this episode of Awakening Doctor, Professor Hoffie Conradie, Emeritus Professor of Family Medicine and dedicated life coach and mentor, reminds us that the heart of medicine lies in relationships and continuity of care. As we...