MY WAKE-UP CALL

As a fitness fanatic he ignored his headaches and vomiting - then he collapsed from a brain haemorrhage. Now Steve Mululu says he won't make the same mistake again

- MELON RADEBE

HE’S not the sort of guy who believes in going to the doctor. As someone who runs a gym, he sees it as his duty to stay in tip-top shape and he’s never had much need for prescriptions and pills.

So when the headaches and vomiting started late last year Steve Mululu initially just tried to ignore them and soldier on at Dream Body Fitness in Joburg, which he co-founded. But unbeknown to Steve (55) something really bad was happening in his brain.

It was only when he started struggling to see and walk that the fitness fanatic decided to go to hospital.

And it’s good thing he did – tests showed he wasn’t suffering from a migraine as he’d thought, but rather a potentially fatal brain haemorrhage.

Within six weeks he needed to undergo three brain surgeries and was given a 5% chance of survival.

Steve pulled through but it’s made him reassess his approach to life. The signs were there that something was badly wrong but he was too stubborn to see them, he tells YOU.

“I was applying the ‘big boys don’t cry’ kind of mantra, which was a little stupid.”

When the headaches started, Steve thought he’d picked up a bug and that it would blow over. But weeks later he was still in pain and reluctantly went to see his GP.

The doctor told him he was working too hard and needed to slow down. Steve ignored this advice, self-medicating with painkillers as the headaches continued.

“I had to nap during the day otherwise I felt like my head was going to burst,” Steve recalls.