BRAVEHEART

Ivanna Samu sits on a couch with a sense of calm about her that belies the absolute chaos she has been through in the past few years of her life and career.

She’s wondering where the cut will fall at the NTT DATA Ladies Pro-Am on the Sunshine Ladies Tour, but it hardly troubles her. Not when you’ve overcome what she has.

“It’s been a tough road,” she says with a smile. That’s a huge understatement, like describing Bethpage Black during a US Open as a “tricky course”.

In the space of about three years, Samu had to deal with what most people never go through in a lifetime.

After turning professional in 2018 on the back of a stellar amateur career, she immediately suffered a career-threatening back injury. During the treatment for this, she nearly died from septicaemia. She had no sooner overcome this than she was diagnosed with cancer.

“As I turned pro everything just happened,” she says. “I went from having a really good amateur career and winning often to turning professional and immediately after that having a back injury and then the cancer.

“I lost about 35kg. I was in bed for six months and in hospital for three months. Having a back injury and being 48% disabled, not being able to bend down or dress yourself or brush your hair, you feel very weak and it’s a mental battle. But through it all, I had amazing people by my side.

“Then you go back on to the course, and I had to make that switch in my mind that I’m a brand new person. My name is still there with everything I’ve done, but I’m not that person any more.”

Indeed, she is far stronger than she thought even she could be.

“You cannot take life for granted. You have to enjoy the small things in life. Golf was everything to me. Then I learned you have to have a life and find the joy in everything outside golf.”

The back injury was the first major challenge. Samu’s spine, either through degeneration or from birth, had collapsed entirely from the L1 to L5 vertebrae.

“We first tried the injections into the spine and I ended up getting septicaemia and almost died. The doctors gave me a 60-40 chance of making it. My specialist then went overseas for a conference and presented my case, and they couldn’t believe I was walking, never mind playing golf.

“He came back and said I was too young and active for a back operation. So he referred me for stem cell therapy. That involved four injections each with a 20cm long needle straight into the back with no anaesthetic. I was in a back brace for three months after that to keep everything still. I was bedridden for just under two months.”

Having overcome this, after playing at the 2020 Investec South African Women’s Open, Samu’s fiancé noticed a lump on her neck. “A few days later I was told I had stage three thyroid cancer,” she says.

Once again, Samu is somehow able to see the upside of this next setback.

“When they operated on the cancer they found it had started to move into all my lymph nodes. So if they hadn’t found it then, it could have developed into lymphatic cancer, and there’s no turning back from that.”

Amid the radiation treatment and her lengthy recovery, COVID also dealt her family a harsh financial blow as it did for so many. To help, Samu started coaching on the side.

“I do look back often and think, ‘Wow, how did I get through that?’ I remind myself that the strength I had in those moments is the strength I can have to push myself forward now,” she says.

It’s hardly surprising that when Investec phoned to let Samu know they’d like to sign her as one of their women athletes, a flood of emotion went through her.

“I cannot thank Investec enough for the support they’ve given me. The road I went on has led me to this, and my time is my time. It’s always been a dream to be a part of the Investec brand. Being a member of the Out of the Ordinary team is close to my heart and I love their brand. If you can be Out of the Ordinary, you can inspire others to do the same.”

TROY WINFIELD/TYRONE WINFIELD/HEINRICH HELMBOLD/PETRI OESCHGERSUNSHINE TOUR