Pamela's Lesson in Courage: A Nurse's Fight

In the gentle atmosphere of the neonatal unit, Pamela Cunniappen has fought two battles: overcoming a tumor and earning her degree. A lesson in courage and faith in life.

As dawn breaks over Victoria Hospital, a silhouette leans tenderly over an incubator in the dim light of the neonatal unit. Pamela Cunniappen, 46 years old, is on watch. She has been doing this since 2011 and will continue tomorrow.

But behind this gesture, which she has performed countless times, lies a story that is profoundly moving. A tale of bravery, setbacks, and rebirth.

To Pamela, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is not just a workplace. "This unit is my sanctuary. I found my calling here, and every baby I care for reminds me why I do this job," she shares, her emotions barely contained.

The tiny lives she cradles in her expert hands have become her reason for being. Every fragile breath, every little fist that closes around her finger is a victory snatched from the fragility of the world.

Married and a mother to an 18-year-old son, Pamela has always balanced her life in Palma, Quatre-Bornes, with her unwavering commitment to her patients. A fulfilling, balanced life. Until that fateful day in 2023 when everything changed.

"What if you tried?"

Around the coffee machine, colleagues share their plans to enroll in a BSc Nursing program. They encourage her to join them. Pamela hesitates. "Returning to study at my age, with a full-time job and a family to manage, seemed insurmountable," she recalls.

Yet, a small inner voice whispers. A voice that refuses to resign, that still believes in possibilities. She enrolls.

The shock is brutal. Online classes, digital platforms, assignments submitted in the cloud... "I felt like I was thrown into a parallel universe," she laughs, a sound that barely masks the anxiety of those first days.

But she is not alone. Her son becomes her improvised IT tutor. Her husband, her logistical pillar. Together, they form a team. She begins to find her rhythm.

December 2023. The world collapses. A tumor in her leg recurs. The diagnosis hits like a guillotine. "I was devastated. I thought about giving up. Fear, doubt, pain... it all came crashing down on me."

In that abyss, a hand reaches out. Mr. Reesaul, the BSc program coordinator, refuses to let her sink. Through his encouraging words and unwavering support, he reignites her spark. "He told me I could make it, even in pain, even in depression. And I believed him."

January 2024. Off to Chennai, India. The surgery. Then the long weeks of recovery, bedridden, dependent. A battered body, a tested spirit. But Pamela has a secret weapon: her refusal to give up.

An hospital bed turned classroom.

In her hospital room and later at home, immobilized, Pamela transforms her suffering into determination. "I turned my hospital bed into a classroom. Every completed assignment was a victory over the pain."

Each line read is a step toward healing. Each exercise completed is a comeback against fate. Her mindset transcends the limits of her broken body. Months pass. The pain subsides. Strength returns.

Today, Pamela is graduated. First in her class. But don’t look for arrogance or career ambition in her. "I never undertook this BSc to climb the ranks. I did it to become better, to offer the best to my little patients."

A perfectionist at heart, she wanted to refine every gesture, every decision, every word addressed to the exhausted families who entrust their most precious treasures to her expert hands.

This training has transformed her practice. She better understands the emotional needs of infants, sharpens her clinical skills, and develops a leadership imbued with empathy. But above all, she now embodies a universal truth: obstacles are never a fatality.

Pamela insists on saying she didn’t win alone. She mentions her colleagues from the NICU, the teaching staff at Polytechnics Mauritius in Pamplemousses, and especially her husband and son. "Their support has been my fuel. Without them, I wouldn’t have made it."

Her son, amid preparing for his baccalaureate and studies abroad, has watched her fight. He has seen his mother rise again. This image speaks louder than any sermon on perseverance. "I graduated first in my class. After everything I’ve been through, this success feels particularly sweet. It embodies my faith, my determination, and my refusal to give up," she shares modestly, her eyes shining.

In the neonatal unit of Victoria Hospital, Pamela Cunniappen continues to care for the most fragile. But now, she is also a living proof that age, illness, or life’s storms cannot extinguish a flame that refuses to go out.

She is more than a nurse. She is a daily hero, a woman of heart and courage, a light in the darkness of intensive care. And every morning, when she pushes open the NICU door, she carries within her this truth: life can challenge, break, and knock down. But some will rise again. Always.