Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

This South African mother of two who has chronicled a six-year fight with stage 4 cancer has now revealed that she has been diagnosed with coronavirus too, but has promised to “kick the virus’ butt”.

Cheree Mc Ewen has been fighting stage four cancer for six years and moved from her hometown of Komani in the Eastern Cape Province in south-eastern South Africa to the city of East London in the same province in 2019 to be closer to hospitals.

She has chronicled her fight against cancer online, sharing graphic photos of surgeries on her hand and her time in hospital. She told local media: “I’ll kick Covid-19’s butt, just like I’m going to kick cancer’s butt. Because I’m a mom, and that’s what we do. We don’t give up! We fight until our last breath. I have my sons, my precious boys, to live for.”

She recently travelled to the Mediclinic Morningside in the city of Johannesburg for two invasive surgeries to remove over 20 tumours from her body.

During her stay, the hospital suffered an outbreak of COIVD-19 with 88 people testing positive.

She was discharged three weeks ago after testing negative for the virus but soon began feeling ill at home.

She initially believed her ill health was a side-effect of her recovery from the surgeries but when she developed a serious cough she was tested again and was told she had contracted COVID-19.

She said she had problems and pain when breathing and had been unable to carry out work as a beauty therapist because of her illness and the coronavirus lockdown in South Africa.

She says she is desperate to return to her hometown of Komani to be with her family and Good Samaritans have set up a fund to help get home through the registered non-profit organisation Wings of Love.

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