Dr Thakgalo Thibela has long dreamt of working in hospital to help people in poor health.

At just 21 years, she is now living her dream.

Thibela, from Violet Bank, a village in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, is one of SA’s youngest doctors. She started her medical internship at Helen Joseph Hospital, Johannesburg, this year.

“I am enjoying what I am doing at the hospital. I am getting clinical exposure and theoretical knowledge is also reinforced. The only question I always get from amazed patients and staff members is, ‘how old are you?’,” said Thibela.

“What I like about my job is that though I may look young, patients never refuse to be examined [by me], instead they are surprised and end complimenting me for being a doctor at an early age,” she said.

Like many children, she started Grade R at the age of six in 2004. S

he was promoted from Grade 6 to Grade 8 due to academic excellence.

“I was excited and nervous when the principal  told my parents and I that because of my academic excellence, the school decided not to waste my time and promote me to high school,” she recalled.

At Lehlasedi High school, also in Shatale, she was promoted to Grade 10 a week into Grade 9.

“I was the top of the class and as a result I was promoted to Grade 10 after the principal realised my potential. In school, I was active in extramural activities such as drama, netball, choir, poetry and debate,” Thibela said.

But when she was in Grade 11, things got tough and her marks dropped. One of her teachers advised her to take extra classes.

“I attended extra classes even on Saturdays. I studied with friends to improve my marks,” she said.

She passed her matric at 15, getting distinctions in mathematics, physical science, life orientation, agricultural science, history, life orientation and  Pedi home language. She got a B in English second language.

At 16, she enrolled for a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at Wits University and funded her studies through a bursary.

Her mother is a primary schoolteacher and her father is a manager at a local municipality.

Thibela said hard work and focus got her through varsity. She said she battled bullies and was made fun of because she could not pronounce some English words. Fellow students made jokes about her accent.

“I was deeply demoralised and that affected my self-esteem. It made me afraid to express myself in front of my peers.”

Thibela got through all of that and says she is determined to achieve even bigger goals and wants to become a neurosurgeon.

“I developed an interest in neurosurgery when I held a human brain during dissection in second year of my studies at university. I want to learn more about it and diseases that affect the nervous system in general and how to treat them.”

Her father Niclaas Thibela, 57, said: “I’m very proud of her achievements. She put my family on the map. I’m also grateful to her teachers who saw her potential and supported her.”