Seeing the way – Katzman’s long road to finals

When King David Victory Park matriculant Gabriel Katzman was 12 years old, his life was forever changed by a cancer diagnosis. But six years later, although the road was long and arduous, he has finished matric and done exceptionally well.

In June 2019, Katzman discovered what he thought was a cool party trick where he would look up at the ceiling and only his left eye would move. This immediately alerted his father, and he was taken to multiple doctors. He was diagnosed with a midbrain glioma, a slow-growing, benign brain tumour in the topmost part of his brain stem, which was inoperable because of its location.

From then on, Katzman would have MRIs every three months, visit ophthalmologists, oncologists, and a neurologist, with follow-ups with an oncology team in America.

In 2020, Katzman and his brother started Grade 8 at King David Victory Park. “Though my peers anticipated this change with excitement, I was having to deal with double vision; strabismus; an eye condition that causes one or both eyes to be misaligned, or crossed poor balance and co-ordination; ataxic speech; a noticeable intention tremor; and continuous fear of what lay ahead.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, one of Katzman’s major lifelines was taken away from him – he would be unable to travel to the United States to receive treatment.

When Katzman was in Grade 10 in 2022, he started his first treatment – oral chemotherapy which wasn’t available locally so had to be shipped from overseas.

“The side effects were awful – nausea, exhaustion, increased weight, joint pain, and a change in my personality,” he said, “But I still went to school every day. After a couple of weeks of taking the medication, the side effects would get really bad so I would go to the ed support room at school and sleep. I missed a lot of lessons because of it.”

After completing chemotherapy, he started his second treatment – radiation. He underwent 30 photon radiation treatments at Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre.

Right as he was set to start Grade 11, Katzman developed “radiation syndrome”, where he couldn’t get out of bed due to extreme exhaustion, nausea, and lethargy.

“I spent eight weeks at home trying to attend school online, managing one lesson and sleeping for hours afterwards. I missed a lot of school in Grade 11, and I was going into matric, so it wasn’t the best start,” he said.

In April 2024, Katzman underwent eye surgery to correct his strabismus, and then a second surgery eight weeks later.

He was offered the option of completing matric over two years, but he was determined to finish it in one year with his brother and friends.

“I knew I could do it, and was prepared to do anything to do so,” he said. “I told myself, I know that matric is a bad year, but it’s only one year of my life, and everyone has to do it, and so will I.”

For his exams, Katzman had a reader, scribe, and prompter, and was given more time than usual. He would often write his exams for eight and a half hours a day, whereas the rest of his grade would write for three.

“By the time I got out of that venue, I was exhausted, but I had the satisfaction that I had done it,” he said. “All the coffee I had throughout the day helped.”

The two things that kept him going were the support of his twin brother, Daniel, and the teachers around him.

“All of my teachers carried me over that finishing line,” said Katzman, “They were constantly checking in on me while I was writing my exams and would have done anything to make sure that this year was as smooth as possible.”

“I could never have gone through this year without my brother,” he said, “He often put his needs aside to help me, whether that be helping me catch up missed work or just supporting me in every aspect.”

Daniel Katzman not only supported his twin brother through all of this, but also managed to achieve outstanding results, including being placed in the Independent Examinations Board top 1% for business studies.

Katzman plans to take care of his health by having some more eye surgeries, and will be taking some short courses and expanding his DJ portfolio by playing gigs throughout the year.