It all seems like old hat for Jennifer-Joyce Hendricks. She walks into the open ward, places her file on the shelf, greets the sister, slips her shoes off for the weigh-in and takes her seat in one of the black lazy-boy chairs.

Whichever way you try to look at it - Lungi Hlakudi has one of the toughest jobs imaginable. As assistant social work manager at Groote Schuur Hospital, Hlakudi is a critical cog in deciding whether kidney patients are approved, or not, for lifesaving dialysis. And more often than not, he is the one who has to tell desperately ill patients when they have failed to make the cut.

For Chesna Cupido, it'€™s been a long road to get to this point. Suffering her first bout of kidney disease 19 years ago, ill health, exhaustion and pain has become part of her daily reality, but she'€™s clear that it'€™s her children that motivate her to return to Groote Schuur time and time again.