Eastern Cape student beats brain disease to clinch LLB

Siphamandla Boyce has not let a rare neuro-autoimmune disease stand in the way of obtaining his LLB degree from the University of Fort Hare.  

On Wednesday morning the 25-year-old left the hospital bed where he is undergoing different therapies to walk across the stage to accept his second university qualification.  

Boyce, from Libode in the Eastern Cape, made headlines in 2021 for his resilience when he acquired a BCom Law degree. 

“I wanted to be the youngest at whatever it is I chose to do, to have my life established at a very early age. My plan was to have my LLB at 22, but things didn’t quite work out that way,” he said.  

His agony started in grade 10 at Zingisa Comprehensive School in Mthatha when he started losing his eyesight and couldn’t write his June exams. While he had always been sickly, this was something new.

In the same year, he went back to school and wrote his final exams, but the temporary blindness was the beginning of a mysterious and painful journey.

The symptoms he suffered from high school became more severe in 2017, while doing the second year of his BCom Law studies. While at home in Libode during the December holidays, he woke up one morning to a headache he had never experienced before.

He was rushed to St Mary’s Hospital in Mthatha, where he vomited and suffered a seizure that would be followed by many more.  

A scan would show severe swelling in his brain. 

“The doctor was not sure what it was. The only thing he could do was prescribe medication,” said Boyce. 

He did not respond well but returned to Fort Hare for his second year. His return was short-lived, however. Feeling too fatigued to go to class, he was forced to deregister and spent most of that year in and out of the hospital, being diagnosed with meningitis repeatedly while suffering seizures and headaches. 

“Around April, I had my first stroke. I woke up and couldn’t move my left arm and left leg. This happened three times in 2017.”

Desperate for answers, he secured a referral to see Dr Bhupendra Bhagwan, the same doctor who had assisted him with his eye problem in 2013. At the start of 2018, he was admitted to Durban’s St Augustine’s Hospital for a biopsy on the ulcers in his mouth — but the mystery remained. 

Undeterred, Boyce relentlessly pursued his goal of becoming a lawyer. He once again enrolled for the BCom programme.

But that June he started to experience severe pain in his knees. After a spell in East London’s Life Hospital, he again went to see Dr Bhagwan in Durban. He was told the only option was to perform a biopsy on his brain — a “dangerous” procedure. 

After the surgery, they had an answer. After years of strokes, seizures, excruciating headaches and agonising limb pain, he was finally diagnosed with the rare autoimmune disorder Behcet’s disease. 

While there is no cure, it can be managed. Ever since, Boyce has followed a strict regimen of one pill in the morning and one at night. 

During the graduation ceremony, he got a special mention from vice-chancellor Prof Sakhela Buhlungu and deputy vice-chancellor for teaching and learning Prof Renuka Vithal. 

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