Zaarah Reid should have been relieved. After battling an osteosarcoma diagnosis at the age of nine, bravely getting through rounds of chemotherapy, and losing her hair, Zaarah was finally confirmed cancer-free. But her healing came at a cost. To ensure the bone cancer would not spread further, doctors had to amputate – first below her left knee and then her entire leg.
For Zaarah’s parents, who hail from Kraaifontein, Cape Town and were living off a single salary at the time, the chemotherapy sessions and surgery were both an emotional and financial blow. And for young Zaarah, who just weeks earlier was a bubbly, carefree child, the diagnosis and loss of her leg took a toll on her spirit, leaving her withdrawn and silent.
Instead of relief, Zaarah was filled with fear and embarrassment around kids her age who did not understand what she was going through. “Going to school, I was insecure and scared about having to be constantly looked at, being judged,” Zaarah says. Plagued by panic attacks, she initially refused to return to school. While Zaarah’s body was healing, her confidence as a young kid had crashed.
That’s when Zaarah’s parents, Daniel and Lizette Baartman, began thinking of ways to revive her spirits. After seeing their daughter floating carefree on a foam board in the pool, they realised that if Zaarah couldn’t walk with confidence, she certainly could learn to swim with ease and contacted the Foxxie Foundation. The local NPO offers a 12-week Adopt-A-Swimmer programme to teach kids water safety and the basics of swimming. Having heard of Zaarah’s journey with cancer and her parents’ battle to raise funds for her treatment, owner Michael Foxley offered her free swimming lessons for as long as she wished to attend.
Despite her insecurity on land, Zaarah rediscovered her fighting spirit in the pool. “After only three weeks of swimming lessons, I could swim faster than kids who had months of swimming lessons,” she says. “Being in the water made me realise that I’m stronger than I thought I was.” Zaarah’s swimming instructor Robin Foxley believes she has the potential to one day be a Paralympic athlete. Within no time, Zaarah has also learnt to climb in and out of the pool independently, and along the way found the courage to face her fears, return to school, and be proud of how far she’s come.
