After an extraordinary four-year battle, Gabi Lowe lost her beautiful, talented 20-year-old daughter, Jenna Lowe, on 8 June 2015 to pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare degenerative lung disease, following a double lung transplant.

Jenna was young, bright and articulate. She was LEAD SA’s Youth Hero of the Year in 2015. Her death was mourned by thousands of people whose lives she had touched. During her short but full life, Jenna and the Lowe family raised much-needed awareness around this rare and devastating disease, highlighting the dire need for access to medication and organ donors locally. Although desperately ill, Jenna became the face for organ donation in South Africa through the hugely successful #GetMeTo21 campaign in which she invited all South Africans to attend her twenty-first birthday celebration by clicking on a link to become an organ donor. Tragically, Jenna died four months before reaching her milestone.

Brilliantly written, riveting in all its terrible truth and pain, in this brutally honest memoir Gabi Lowe shares her family’s desperate fight to save Jenna’s life. Get Me to 21 will inspire us to believe that the ability to face even the darkest, and most unimaginable, lives deep within us all.

Addiction has become an epidemic in our society that is destroying the lives of people around the world at a rapidly increasing rate. When families have a loved one or even a friend who has been drawn into the world of drugs and alcohol addiction, or addiction of any kind, they are faced with the same challenging questions: is there a way out? Can a person truly break free from the bondage of addiction? The answer is YES YOU CAN!

Addiction of any kind can be beaten. There is hope and there is a way. The journey of recovery is a process of rebuilding every aspect of an individual’s life. It’s the exciting journey of discovering who you really are and who God created you to be. No matter how bad the situation, God has a plan to restore and redeem the life of an addict. Your best life is just one decision away! Brennan was addicted to drugs and alcohol for 15 years before he gave his life to Christ. He has overcome drug and alcohol addiction and has been sober for the past 13 years. This book is a practical guide of his first-hand experience and his personal journey in overcoming addiction. May God bless you and empower you to overcome as you read this book!

CRC is a dynamic, vibrant, growing group of churches that is making an impact in thousands of people’s lives all over the world. Pastor At Boshoff is the founder and visionary leader of CRC nationally and internationally. Brennan is serving in full time pastoral ministry, in the CRC vision, under the leadership of Pastor Glenn Schroder (Senior Pastor of CRC Durban, Ballito and Hillcrest) for the past 13 years.

‘How can there be only one dedicated hospital in the country for our children?’

When Madiba asked this question, he sowed the seeds of a challenge that would grow into a legacy.

A seed may be small but its size is disproportionate to what it can become over time. The Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital was a project that seemed impossible when it was just an idea that started with ten people seated around a dinner table. As they discussed the state of healthcare in the country and shared their experiences, they realised that it was the children of Southern Africa who were the most disadvantaged by the lack of dedicated paediatric facilities. At the end of the evening a statement by the late Dr Nthato Motlana took hold and became the catalyst for a remarkable journey: ‘I will speak to Nelson,’ he said.

With South Africa’s first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela’s backing, the board of the Children’s Fund was inspired to take up the challenge to address this vital need. After years of global research and advice from experts in numerous different fields a Trust was formed to oversee the project and, critically, to set about raising the one billion rand it would take to build, equip and staff a state-of-the-art children’s hospital.

The stories behind the planning for, fundraising and building of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital are inspiring, personal, and sometimes heart-breaking. It was a long and arduous journey, beset with difficulties, but the dedicated team’s commitment and courage prevailed to create a living legacy that will truly impact the lives of children for generations to come.

Today, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg is a proud testimony to a uniquely African story which honours the memory of a great statesman and celebrates the children for whom he cared so deeply.

South African born-and-raised Hollywood screenwriter Helena Kriel is researching the ancient text of the Kama Sutra for a movie she’s writing. At the same time, she is travelling to India to meet with sages and find answers to the universal challenges of sex and love. While searching for love in her doomed relationships, little does she know she will find her answers in caring for her dying brother, Evan, in South Africa.

Set in the mid-1990s, South Africa is just emerging from the darkness of apartheid and bursting with vibrant chaos. The story zooms in on an intense year in the narrator’s life. It centres around the lively and eccentric South African Kriel family: Maya, the combative but inspired mother; Lexi, the sister recently returned from living in a temple in India; Ross, the younger brother diving with sharks; and Helena, the narrator, herself on a journey to understand love and death. At the heart of the story is Evan, her terminally ill 30-year-old gay brother, who has been keeping his illness a shameful secret. Conscious, sensitive, terrified and trying to hang onto sanity as his world changes, Evan becomes paralysed then finally goes blind as death draws ever closer. But it is Evan who leads the family through the fire.

In living through her brother’s fight to stay alive, the narrator finds herself at the heart of a savage story, one she would not have chosen. How could she know when she set out to India to find ancient solutions to the modern problems of our age that her brother’s approaching death would be her greatest teacher? How could she imagine that dying brings everything to life?

The Year Of Facing Fire is an astoundingly written memoir by one of South Africa’s finest writers. It traverses universal themes including love, death and sex, and finds value in the ordinary and great beauty in the uncertain.

Die oorlewingstog van 'n dapper vrou.

“ ʼn Kale vlakte waar my regterbors eens was. Ek maak my oë toe en laat my brein toe om te proe aan hierdie monumentale ding. Kanker schmanker, besluit ek. Ek is nog net soveel vrou soos voor die operasie. My vroulikheid het toe al die tyd nie in my bors gesit nie. Dit sit in my kop, in my hart, in daardie onmeetbare, onaantasbare iets wat die gees genoem word.”

In hierdie aangrypende boek deel die bekende spanningsverhaalskrywer Madelein Rust die intiemste besonderhede van haar reis met borskanker. Dit is ʼn brutaal eerlike vertelling wat haar belewenis van die siekte met patos en humor uitbeeld. Lesers verkry ʼn eiesoortige blik op die fisieke ervarings van borskankerstryders sowel as die ewig veranderende binnewêreld van dié wat teen die siekte veg.

Kanker schmanker! rus borskankerstryders toe met inligting wat nie altyd geredelik beskikbaar is nie en help hul geliefdes om die reis met kanker beter te verstaan. Dit is ʼn boek van hoop en triomf wat die leser hardop laat huil en laat lag. Dis 'n verhaal vir elkeen van ons wat ʼn stryd van enige aard stry.

Samantha is stamped with a 'bipolar' label that becomes the trajectory for her tortured existence. For the next three decades she will wind through a maze of anguished suffering, accompanied by memory-effacing medical interventions in the form of electroconvulsive therapies, heaps of pills and repellent hallucinations. As her helpless family and loved ones watch, often in terror, Samantha yo-yos between acceptance and denial of her diagnosis. Time and again believing she is well, she plummets into the devastating chasm of her illness.

Life Interrupted is a deeply compelling memoir that brilliantly humanises the sufferer beyond the label. It is groundbreaking in the way the author shares the horrors of psychosis and unbounded mania, the fears of depression and the emergence of recovery.

This book will not only appeal to the over four million people diagnosed with bipolar in South Africa, but to the millions of people who are affected by loved ones with bipolar, as well as to everyone who reads it.

Matthew Buckland built a business that employed 70+ people and counted Vodacom, Naspers, Mediclinic and J&B as clients. He fulfilled many an entrepreneur’s dream when he sold it to M&C Saatchi for millions, and stayed on as MD. But a few years later, he was out on his own again with a new venture and a new battle to fight: against cancer. So You Want to Build a Startup? is a frank, refreshing account of the difficulties – and the fun ­– of building a new-media business. 

Ilana and Martin Gerschlowitz are an ordinary middle-class South African family – young, newly married with bright, promising futures. Ilana falls pregnant and gives birth to David, a happy, healthy baby boy. At 10 months old, David suffers recurring ear infections, and at 11 months old a terrible fever sends him to hospital. David’s behaviour abruptly changes – he no longer looks at his parents, his motor and budding language skills disappear, and the light in his eyes dims. It is the beginning of a journey with autism that few parents would ever want to encounter, and yet a staggering number of children are now diagnosed with autism, and the number of diagnoses rises every year.

Ilana and Martin work tirelessly to understand David’s autism diagnosis, and to search for ways to treat their son. The couple arrange an international autism conference, open a treatment centre for autistic children, and begin outreach programs for underprivileged families dealing with autism.

Ilana falls pregnant again and their third son, Aaron, develops normally. And then the unthinkable happens – at 16 months Aaron develops ear infections and they decide to insert grommets. Immediately after the procedure, they realise that Aaron is not behaving in his usual manner. Within days, it becomes clear that Aaron, too, has developed autism, and their journey begins afresh. Armed with the knowledge gained from years of treating David, the couple set about ensuring that Aaron’s condition is treated swiftly and carefully.

Dr Joan Louwrens was always drawn to wild places, which were balm to her soul. When her husband died, leaving her alone with two small daughters to raise, she threw herself wholeheartedly into ‘adventure medicine’, seeking out the world’s most remote corners – on land and at sea – to practise her healing, both her own and others.

Working in wild places from the Kruger Park to the Australian Outback, the Atlantic Ocean islands, and both the south and north poles, ‘Doctor Joan’ dealt with a vast range of medical issues, from rabies to deep-vein thrombosis, childbirth to wisdom-tooth extraction, catatonia to depression.

Showing an eagerness to learn and a humility that isn’t always a given in her profession, and with a wry eye and a sympathetic outlook, Joan Louwrens has written a memoir that’s a poignant and often funny story of a life lived to the full

In this new biography of Chris Barnard we not only learn about the life of South Africa’s most famous surgeon, from his Beaufort West childhood through his studies locally and abroad to his prominent marriages – and divorces – but James Styan also examines the impact of the historic heart transplant on Barnard’s personal life and South African society at large, where apartheid legislation often made the difficulties of medicine even more convoluted.

The role of black medical staff like Hamilton Naki is explored, as is the intense rivalry that arose between other famous heart surgeons and Barnard. How did Barnard manage to beat them all in this race of life and death? How much did his famous charisma have to do with it all? And in the light of his later years, his subsequent successes and considerable failures, what is Barnard’s legacy today?

Styan covers it all in this fascinating new account of a real heartbreaker that coincides with the 50th anniversary of the first heart transplant.

"A patient is standing in the middle of the river. He gazes across the water to the city and the mountain above where the sun is setting. His back is turned to the hospital. The nurses are waiting for him patiently on the river bank. He seems uncertain whether to cross the river or to return. There is no danger. He is on the edge, in an in-between space, as is the hospital where I have worked as a specialist psychiatrist for over twenty-five years."

For many of us, what lies beyond conventional portrayals of mental illness is often shrouded in mystery, misconception and fear. Dr Sean Baumann spent decades as a psychiatrist at Valkenberg Hospital and, through his personal engagement with patients’ various forms of psychosis, he describes the lived experiences of those who suffer from schizophrenia, depression, bipolar and other disorders.

The stories told are authentic, mysterious and compelling, representing both vivid expressions of minds in turmoil and the struggle to give form and meaning to distress. The author seeks to describe these encounters in a respectful way, believing that careless portrayals of madness cause further suffering and perpetuate the burden of stigma.

Baumann argues cogently for a more inclusive way of making sense of mental health. With sensitivity and empathy, his enquiries into the territories of art, psychology, consciousness, otherness, free will and theories of the self reveal how mental illness raises questions that affect us all.

Madness is illustrated by award-winning artist Fiona Moodie.

Toe Antoinette Pienaar, Afrikaanse sangeres en aktrise, die eerste keer staan voor oom Johannes Willemse, legendariese Griekwa-heler, sê hy: “Hier kom Juffrou nou eers aan!”

Want toe het oom Johannes al byna veertig jaar lank drome gekry van die vrou met die rooi bakkie aan wie hy sy kennis sou oordra. Kennis wat terug tot in die antieke verskiet van oupa na kleinseun aangegee is. Ná jare se vakleerlingskap het die eerste uitgawe van Kruidjie Roer My verskyn. Dié boek oor wat Karookruie vir jou kan doen het sy plek as klassieke werk ingeneem.

In Kruidjie Roer My hoor ’n mens die warm stem van Antoinette soos duisende luisteraars na haar gewilde rubriek op rsg dit ken: vol begrip en deernis, altyd met ’n staaltjie en boweal die ruimhartige mededeling van haar kennis en oom Johannes se wysheid wat nie net na jou liggaam omsien nie, maar ook jou gees dokter.

’n Boek vol mooi name, soos kokkoromoniet, rooivergeetwortels en louhout. En met ’n weelde aan stories en raad wat nou weer beskikbaar is.

Vir die vroue wat hy met sy rolprentsterglimlag betower het, was Chris Barnard ’n hartebreker. Vir sy pasiënte ’n harteheler.

Dié nuwe biografie oor Suid-Afrika se beroemdste hartsjirurg vertel nie net van Barnard se kinderjare in Beaufort-Wes, sy prominente huwelike (en egskeidings) en flambojante lewe nie. James Styan ondersoek ook die impak van die historiese eerste hartoorplanting op Barnard se persoonlik lewe en op die Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskap in die algemeen, waar apartheidswetgewing dikwels die probleme van geneeskunde nog ingewikkelder gemaak het. Die rol van swart mediese personeel soos Hamilton Naki word bespreek, sowel as die intense wedywering wat tussen ander beroemde hartsjirurge en Barnard ontstaan het.

Hoe het Barnard dit reggekry om hulle almal in dié resies om lewe en dood te wen? Hoeveel het sy welbekende sjarme daarmee te doen gehad? En wat is Barnard se nalatenskap vandag, in die lig van sy latere suksesse en aansienlike mislukkings? Styan dek dit alles in dié fassinerende nuwe blik op Chris Barnard wat uitgegee is om saam te val met die 50ste herdenking van die eerste hartoorplanting.

This book is a duology consisting of Child and Adolescent Development (2nd ed.) and Adult Development and Ageing (2nd ed).

Owing to the topics covered, there is some overlapping, but this is relatively minimal.

What would you do if you discovered that the food you have been told is good for you is actually the cause of your ill health …?

In December 2010, Professor Tim Noakes was introduced to a way of eating that was contrary to everything he had been taught and was accepted as conventional nutrition ‘wisdom’. Having observed the benefits of the low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) lifestyle first-hand, and after thorough and intensive research, Noakes enthusiastically revealed his findings to the South African public in 2012. The backlash from his colleagues in the medical establishment was as swift as it was brutal, and culminated in a misconduct inquiry launched by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). The subsequent hearing lasted well over a year, but Noakes ultimately triumphed, being found not guilty of unprofessional conduct in April 2017.

In Lore of Nutrition, he explains the science behind the LCHF/Banting diet, and why he champions this lifestyle despite the constant persecution and efforts to silence him. He also discusses at length what he has come to see as a medical and scientific code of silence that discourages anyone in the profession from speaking out against the current dietary guidelines. Experienced journalist Marika Sboros provides the full backstory to the HPCSA hearing, which reads like something out of a spy novel.

Written in an accessible style, Lore of Nutrition is informative, highly controversial and an eye-opener for anyone who cares about their health.

Shéri Brynard has reached many remarkable milestones, although she was born with Down Syndrome. She talks about how love and acceptance from her family and friends formed her. She tells of her adventures, her pain and the harsh realities she has to face as an adult with Down Syndrome. Her mother tells the tale of living in Shéri’s shadow, speaking without holding back about her crisis of faith when she heard that her daughter had Down Syndrome. A touching tale.

HEALTH, SAFETY, AND NUTRITION FOR THE YOUNG CHILD, 9th Edition, covers contemporary health, safety, and nutrition needs of infant through school-age children--and guides teachers in implementing effective classroom practices--in one comprehensive, full-color volume. Concepts are backed by the latest research findings and linked to NAEYC standards. The book emphasizes the importance of respecting and partnering with families to help children establish healthy lifestyles and achieve their learning potential. Early childhood educators, professionals, and families will find the latest research and information on many topics of significant concern, including food safety, emergency and disaster preparedness, childhood obesity, children's mental health, bullying, resilience, chronic and acute health conditions, environmental quality, and children with special medical needs. Also provided are easy-to-access checklists, guidelines, and activities that no early childhood student or professional should be without.

Across the world, 2 billion experience menstruation, yet menstruation is seen as a mark of shame. We are told not to discuss it in public, that tampons and sanitary pads should be hidden away, the blood rendered invisible. In many parts of the world, poverty, culture and religion collide causing the taboo around menstruation to have grave consequences. Younger people who menstruate are deterred from going to school, adults from work, infections are left untreated. The shame is universal and the silence a global rule.

In It's Only Blood, Anna Dahlqvist tells the shocking but always moving stories of why and how people from Sweden to Bangladesh, from the United States to Uganda, are fighting back against the shame.

For every doctor there is that one patient, whose story touches them in a way they didn't expect, changing their entire outlook on life. This inspiring and deeply moving book is the story of those patients.

Every weekend, in Holland's most popular newspaper, de Volkskrant, renowned science-journalist Ellen de Visser asks a different medical professional to tell her about 'that one patient'; the patient who changed everything for them. Every day, in every country, thousands of patients share their stories with their doctors: stories they may never have told anyone else; stories that are heartbreaking, sometimes funny, and - just occasionally - unforgettable. To be able to do their job to the best of their abilities, medical experts use their 'professional empathy': they sympathize with their patients but try to keep themselves at a distance. But there is always that one patient who, for whatever reason, bridges this distance and often unwittingly, has a lasting impact on their doctor's life.

There's the dying patient whose decision to donate their organs would save the lives of five different people, bringing incredible comfort to the family they left behind. Or the little girl who showed clear evidence of having been beaten by an adult, but who remained too loyal to her step-father to say a word. There's the little boy, diagnosed with life-threatening malaria in a Sudanese refugee camp, whose astonishing survival against the odds still inspires their doctor each time they stand by the bed of a child who looks unlikely to make it. And there's the cancer patient whose love of cycling and unflagging optimism inspired his oncologist in ways he could never have imagined.

That One Patient is brimming with intimate stories of connection and of the unanticipated ways we can affect one other's lives. All of them remind us of just how extraordinary humans can be, and of our incredible capacity for bravery, strength and humour.

In 12 Rules for Life, acclaimed public thinker and clinical psychologist Jordan B. Peterson offered an antidote to the chaos in our lives: eternal truths applied to modern anxieties. His insights have helped millions of readers and resonated powerfully around the world. Now in this long-awaited sequel, Peterson goes further, showing that part of life's meaning comes from reaching out into the domain beyond what we know, and adapting to an ever-transforming world.

While an excess of chaos threatens us with uncertainty, an excess of order leads to a lack of curiosity and creative vitality. Beyond Order therefore calls on us to balance the two fundamental principles of reality - order and chaos - and reveals the profound meaning that can be found on the path that divides them. In times of instability and suffering, Peterson reminds us that there are sources of strength on which we can all draw: insights borrowed from psychology, philosophy, and humanity's greatest myths and stories.

Drawing on the hardwon truths of ancient wisdom, as well as deeply personal lessons from his own life and clinical practice, Peterson offers twelve new principles to guide readers towards a more courageous, truthful and meaningful life.

In 1994, sixteen-year-old Emmanuel Taban walked out of war-torn Sudan with nothing, and nowhere to go. In the preceding months, he was abducted and then tortured by government forces, who falsely accused him of spying for the South Sudanese rebels.

He managed to flee, hoping to be reunited with his family, but ended up going on a long and arduous journey through many African countries to South Africa. For many months Taban lived mostly on the street and faced many dangers, but he refused to give up.

He arrived in South Africa penniless, and with only five years of schooling. Determined to get a proper education, Taban first completed school and then his medical studies. After specialising as a pulmonologist in 2018, he recently made a ground-breaking discovery around the treatment of hypoxemic COVID-19 patients.

Taban overcame extreme poverty, racism and xenophobia to become the man he is today. Heartwarming and inspiring, his life story is one of survival against all odds.

Abnormal Psychology provides a good introduction to the study of psychological disorders from a South African perspective. The book refers to both International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) criteria to classify and define mental disorders. It is aimed at second- and third-year students following courses in Psychopathology or Abnormal Psychology at universities and is endorsed by PsySSA.
The second edition of Abnormal Psychology features new chapters on western and African aetiological models, psychological manifestations of physical illness, and mental wellness. It includes South African research where relevant with a greater focus on analysing South African contexts.

Nursing care remains at the cutting edge of science as innovations in patient care continuously evolve. However, fundamental and general skills are still necessary to develop the clinical reasoning skills a nurse requires in order to provide safe, high-quality care to patients and communities.

All chapters include updated information where appropriate. New topics include the latest methods in infection control, information on electronic patient records, the ethical use of social media and a review of nutritional information.

Each chapter contains:
• The prerequisite knowledge necessary for study of that chapter, to ensure integration with other core subjects
• Ethical considerations
• Relevant medico-legal considerations
• Key concepts and terminology as well as new vocabulary

"Why walk when you can soar..."

These are the opening words on Tracy Todd’s website and they are a powerful affirmation of the person Tracy is today – a sought-after inspirational speaker whose uplifting presentations have inspired and given hope to many people. But it is difficult to imagine what she has overcome in a tough and often lonely journey.

At the age of twenty-eight her life was turned upside down when a horrific road accident left her a quadriplegic, paralysed from the neck down. Her life as an athletic, marathon-running young mother and teacher was abruptly shattered. Despite months of rehabilitation, Tracy often found herself wondering if her life was worth living. Everything she had taken for granted was now beyond her reach and frustration at her helplessness threatened to overwhelm her. Against the odds, Tracy chose to live.

Her strength of character and determination prevailed and, sustained by the support of her son, family and friends, her care assistants, and an unbelievably caring community, she set about gaining the independence to rebuild her life and reclaim her identity – which she has done, with dignity and grace. Brave Lotus Flower Rides The Dragon is an honest, inspiring and engaging memoir in which Tracy’s natural warmth and humour are tangible and, most importantly, she embodies what the human spirit can achieve.