Eddie Daniels, of Westridge, may be a double amputee, but he is determined to spread a positive and resilient message and start a support group for those in wheelchairs.

The 66-year-old first had his right leg amputated above the knee, after he had a “diabetic inflammatory explosion” while driving between business meetings in April.

“As I was driving, my leg started blistering. It popped like a balloon and my leg opened up. I still drove myself to the emergency unit at Victoria Hospital and they rushed me inside.

“I waited for an hour or two to see a doctor, but in that time, I had passed out. I was gone for almost four minutes but they managed to resuscitate me.

“According to the doctors, I had a diabetic inflammatory explosion. I was only diagnosed with type 2 diabetes the year before.”

Before the amputation, Mr Daniels was an active sports person with a keen interest in football development that dates back to the heart of the Apartheid years.

During the late 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded a few football clubs, including Liverpool Portland and Athlone Celtics.

Athlone Celtics, he says, was the first coloured women’s football club in Cape Town, and is where he and his peers discovered a young Desiree Ellis, who would later become the Banyana Banyana coach.

“I was the first chairperson of Athlone Celtics, and we discovered her playing soccer in Shelley Road in Salt River. She was 15 years old at the time.”

Mr Daniels spent several months recovering at the Aquarius rehabilitation facility on the grounds of Lentegeur Psychiatric Hospital.

In July, his left leg was amputated below the knee after he developed gangrene in it. After his discharge from rehab in September this year, the former Southfield resident moved in with his sister and her partner in Westridge.

“The first thing I did was I thanked God and accepted what had happened to me because by acceptance it is easier to heal.

“My faith had already carried me through to victory because God gave me another chance at life. I should have been dead.”

While Mr Daniels receives visits from home-based carers every few days, he lives self-sufficiently and can bath and dress himself. He also enjoys deejaying and now wants to start a social support club for others in wheelchairs.

“Many people can’t accept what happened to them. They just sit at home and don’t go out, and their family suffer because of it.

“Being in a wheelchair doesn’t mean it is the end of your life. There are many things you can still do. I want to start a support group for others like me so that people can have an outlet and feel that they are not alone.

“We could come together and play dominoes and darts. We can do everything if we set our mind to it.

“We must not feel that we are useless or a burden to other people because that is where the depression starts. It is such a misconception that we can’t do anything for ourselves. We can.”

Contact Mr Daniels on 073 4842 367.

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