Madiba phones ill Pik
2005-02-06 22:44
Johannesburg - South African political veteran Pik Botha, 72, hesitates when asked how he felt after he got the news that there's a cancerous growth on his colon.
"It's a huge disappointment," he answers in his heavy, measured voice.
But Botha will only know on Tuesday, when he will undergo an operation to remove the tumour, how serious it is.
"On the one hand there is the hope that the cancer has not spread. On the other fear that it has," says Botha.
"In such times one thinks a lot differently about things," the former foreign affairs minister says.
"Things that used to be very important, lose their significance".
"Like the cricket series between South Africa and England. He's crazy about it," his wife, Ina, relates.
"But his concentration was not on the game on Sunday."
Only when he takes his granddaughter Robynne Botha in his arms and playfully explains that as a woman she's not supposed to make herself sound older by saying she's "almost 12" instead of "she's just turned 11", it's clear what's really important to him.
According to Botha the calls and SMS messages have streamed in since people heard he has cancer.
He especially appreciated the call from former president Nelson Mandela.
He told Madiba that he was an inspiration for him to keep the faith.
In the midst of everything, he is also very grateful for the medical technology that has come so far that he can possibly be helped.
He is also grateful for a rich life full of opportunities and adventure.
"You know, if one has cheated on fate a couple of
times," he begins and tells of the spinal cord infection he had as a child when medical treatment was not as readily available as it is today.
He also recalls a plane crash near Upington that he survived.
And he was booked on the fatal Pan Am flight that went down over Lockerbie, but changed the booking "for practical reasons".
Botha was also dignosed with prostate cancer in 1998.