This week on Womanity – Women in Unity, Dr. Amaleya Goneos-Malka speaks with Dr. Francisca van der Schyff — one of South Africa’s few abdominal organ transplant surgeons, working out of Wits University’s Donald Gordon Medical Centre. A true pioneer in her field, Dr. van der Schyff performs life-saving kidney and liver transplants for both children and adults. She also serves as the President of the South African Transplant Society and is a Fellow of the European Board of Transplant Surgeons.

Dr. van der Schyff takes us on a journey through her route into medicine, sharing how her desire to alleviate human suffering led her first into general surgery and later into the highly specialised world of transplant medicine. It was during her time in paediatric surgery that she encountered children with liver conditions such as biliary atresia, who could only survive through liver transplantation. She describes the heartbreak of seeing willing parents beside their sick children, unknowingly carrying within them the cure — a piece of their own liver. This insight sparked her determination to train further and specialise in transplant surgery.

In this interview, Dr. van der Schyff demystifies the process of organ transplantation — explaining how liver transplants from living donors, especially in children, can offer a second chance at life with relatively little long-term impact on the donor. She also discusses the misconceptions and fears surrounding organ donation, both from deceased and living donors, and passionately advocates for more education, awareness, and support to address South Africa’s chronic shortage of organ donors.

One of the most poignant moments in the episode is when she shares a real-life story of performing two emergency liver transplants for children on Christmas Eve. While one child’s life was saved thanks to a brave father who overcame his fear to donate part of his liver, the other child tragically passed away because his father, although willing, couldn’t face the procedure in time. The emotional weight of this moment continues to fuel her mission for systemic change and public understanding.

As the head of the South African Transplant Society, Dr. van der Schyff outlines her vision to unify the country’s fragmented transplant services and foster collaboration among diverse teams — including surgeons, psychologists, palliative care specialists, coordinators, and social workers. She highlights the critical importance of multidisciplinary teamwork, humility in leadership, and valuing every voice in a patient’s care journey.

From a gender lens, Dr. van der Schyff shares personal reflections on growing up in a home where both her mother and father contributed equally to family and work — a model that shaped her expectations and her own life. She offers candid advice to young women in medicine: to choose life partners wisely, acknowledge that some sacrifices are inevitable in high-performance careers, and to define success through service, not perfection. She stresses that self-belief is not inborn but cultivated — through discipline, persistence, and doing hard things that make us proud of ourselves.

Listeners will be inspired by her grounded wisdom and unwavering sense of purpose — rooted in a belief that true fulfilment comes from alleviating suffering and being of service to others. She reminds us that female traits — such as empathy, emotional intelligence, and resilience — are not liabilities in surgery, but superpowers.

This is an episode about science, but it’s also about humanity. About leadership, courage, and legacy. About what it means to live a meaningful life in the service of others.

Tune in for more…