I am Dr Samke Ngcobo, a medical doctor and author who was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder at the age of 14. I identify with my illness primarily, as it arrived prior to my qualification as a doctor.
It is my belief that the best storyteller about mental health issues, is the one experiencing them and it is a journey that is filled with many struggles and triumphs and failures. At best, my life is stable, calm and peaceful. At worst, it is turbulent and volatile with a myriad of challenges.
I founded this organisation as I believe that the mentally ill deserve and need to speak in their own voice and to be heard from their own perspective. It is my wish that someday, mental illnesses will be regarded with the same seriousness and importance as that of other physical illnesses.
I believe in advocacy and activism for the rights of those like me.
May my struggles ease the load and burden of those like me as I fully empathise and can relate with the suffering that is often silent and invisible.