Durban - It has been six years since Oliver Sinclair, who has multiple sclerosis, underwent a risky stem cell operation to arrest the effects of the degenerative disease for which there is no cure.
Since then, the former game ranger, a resident of Winston Park, has discovered a new passion – surfing.
This, in spite of the fact that he can no longer swim.
“The last time I entered a pool, I ended up at the bottom of the deep end. My wife had to jump in and save me,” he recalled.
A day at uShaka Beach changed that.
Soon after discovering the joys of a beach wheelchair, which people with a disability can use to float in the water, Sinclair was sitting in the shade when “this guy appear in my face”.
“He asked me: ’Do you want to surf?’”
Next minute, they were out on the back line.
“It was so sudden. I didn’t even know this guy’s name but he got me on a board, without a wetsuit. Then he lay on top of of my legs.”
The friendly stranger was Leon van Zyl, from the non-profit making organisation Made For More (www.madeformore.org.za), which introduces people with disabilities to surfing, a form of bowls called boccia, exercise therapy and wheelchair basketball.
He has become Sinclair’s coach and surfing companion. Next weekend, Sinclair will take part in the SA Adaptive Surfing Championships, having won a division in the provincial competition.
“I don’t have the use of my right arm and I am weak in my left arm. I cannot paddle out to catch a wave, so I am allowed to have someone help me,” Sinclair, 46, said.
His board, custom-made by Spider Murphy of Safari Surf, has a groove carved into it “to help me stay on the board”.
“It also has three handles in front and a groove cut in the back for my feet to fit into.”
Sinclair says that being in the surf and being in the bush are both similar and different.
“It’s nature and you are exposed to the elements,” he said.
“You are certainly not in control of the situation. You have to read and understand the sea. It’s nothing like being in the bush. Yet, in so many ways, it gives me the same sense of calmness.”
Out on the water on a board, he can escape from thinking about the challenges he faces every day.
“Rather, I think: will I catch perfect wave?“
His new passion has also helped him and his wife, Michelle, bring up their two children, Tyler, 11, and Sassy, 7, in the outdoors they love.
They campaign aims to promote accessibility to surfing and other activities that disabled people can participate in.
“The only way to raise awareness is to take part in events. The more we do so, the more the demand for accessibility grows and the more the understanding grows.”
He hopes it will become the norm for events to always include people with disabilities, like the Paralympics that follow the Olympic Games.
Sinclair has registered to take part in the Amashova cycle race in October, using a hand-cycle.
He had completed Amashova events on bicycle but, since his stem cell operation, he suffered a fall that stopped him cycling conventional bicycles as well as walking. He is confined to a wheelchair while on land.
As for life after the operation, Sinclair said it could never have reversed his multiple sclerosis, just halted it.
“So far it has worked.”
Dee Munks, who chairs the KZN branch of Multiple Sclerosis SA, said it had 109 members but there were probably more sufferers who were “reluctant to admit the impact”.
“An increasing number of people are being diagnosed of late,” she said.
“Generally the go-to treatment is corticosteroids which offer a temporary relief and improved energy levels. The next step is to go for disease-modifying drugs of which there are quite a few but the cost involved is high and generally not accepted by medical aids.
“After that, it is up to meds that help with the varied number of symptoms with varying degrees of success.”
Munks said stem cell treatment was recommended, but it was costly.
“The treatment itself, as Oli (Sinclair) will attest to, is brutal. It is not for the faint-hearted. We hear of a few folk who have gone this route, some with some degree of success and others have had the process repeated. It is not the norm, mainly because of the cost involved.”
Next Saturday is World Multiple Sclerosis Day.
To mark the day, the KZN branch of Multiple Sclerosis SA will hold a fund-raising family day featuring sponsored walks, music, food and art stalls at 8 Montgomery Drive, Winston Park, from 10am. Entry is R30.
The Independent on Saturday