I'M DOING IT MY WAY

As Zoleka Mandela battles terminal cancer, she's grateful she's able to decide what her final weeks will be like

- NOKUTHULA ZWANE-EJIKE

SHE starts every morning with the Serenity Prayer: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference"

For Zoleka Mandela, it's a reminder to take each day as it comes. "It's about being present and living in the present, living for the day and living in the now because that's where life is happening for me right now," she says.

The 43-year-old granddaughter of Nelson Mandela and Winnie MadikizelaMandela is speaking to YOU as she fights cancer for the third time. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012 and then again in 2016.

Zoleka thought she'd beaten it but in August last year it came back with a vengeance. She was diagnosed with bone metastasis, which occurs when cancer cells spread from their original site to the bone, and it's ravaging her body.

"The news of another diagnosis certainly did bring me down," she admits. "I was possibly at my very worst. I couldn't believe I was being told that I don't get to call myself a survivor.

The cancer, which is also in her liver, lung, brain and pelvis, is terminal yet Zoleka is determined to not let her illness have the last say.

She doesn't want her death to be in vain and is adamant her legacy will live on long after she's gone.

The author and activist is documenting her journey with end-stage cancer on her YouTube channel, Zoleka Mandela: Terminally Free - The Series.

"I think the channel is such a great opportunity to give hope to someone else, to maximise on a chance to bring about education and change in the lives of others living with terminal cancer," she says.

"I'm hoping it will also raise awareness about the disease and give viewers a better understanding of what gets me out of bed and going every day.