I'M NOT A VICTIM

First a freak accident then two years of hell after flesh-eating bacteria attacked her leg – but that hasn’t quashed Lalie’s lust for life

-  MELON RADEBE

SHE used to love mountain biking, quad biking and playing golf but those days are over now. A freak accident led to rampant infection that saw her enduring weeks of hell and robbed her of her leg.

Yet Lalie Reynecke’s lust for life remains intact. She dances on crutches while listening to AC/DC, Mandoza and Pink Floyd, is learning to play the harmonica and loves archery.

Lalie’s life changed two years ago when a cut led to necrotising fasciitis, a rare and aggressive form of flesh-eating bacteria.

As the deadly infection raced through her blood, her right leg became covered in blisters and turned black from her foot to above her knee.

To save her life, doctors had to amputate her leg above the knee and when she experienced complications after the surgery she had to go under the knife again.

Lalie has since endured multiple surgeries and two more amputations to her leg.

And she’s twice had to undergo debridement, an excruciatingly painful procedure to remove dead tissue.

“There were black pieces of skin they had to slice off,” Lalie (56) tells YOU. “Doctors used an epidural for one of the debridement procedures and one amputation because I’d had too many operations and they didn’t want to keep putting me under anaesthesia.

“I can still hear the saw and smell how they burnt all that dead tissue,” she recalls.

The amputation has cost Lalie her independence and she’s had to abandon plans to return to her job in China where she was teaching English to children.

Yet she tries to remain positive and is raising funds for a prosthetic leg.