Bedfordview resident and medical doctor, Dr Lilliana Lulli-Marucchi is living proof that with strong willpower coupled with a good support system one can weather any storm.
The 33-year-old recently made it to the Top 100 of this year’s Schwarzkopf Professional Mrs South Africa Pageant.
Dr Lulli-Marucchi is a community service doctor at Tembisa Hospital.
She said during her Mrs SA journey that she is looking to raise awareness of mental health as well as basic gynaecological education among teenagers.
“To this end, I am setting up a team to launch a project during which I will teach teenage girls in and around schools in Tembisa about the importance of basic gynaecology. Having worked in the area since completing my degree in 2013, I have realised how much need there is for people to be empowered with information,” said Dr Lulli-Marucchi.
A cancer survivor herself, Dr Lulli-Marucchi said she believes the support of her family carried her through her darkest days. She is a wife and a stepmom to two children.
“Part of the reason I want to raise awareness on mental illness is that at the time when I was still very ill from cancer I was depressed. I want people to know when they are slipping into depression and to know how to pull themselves out of it,” she said.
She said what she loves about the competition is that it is different to other pageants. “I find that this is not a beauty pageant, but more of a people’s pageant. It has less emphasis on appearances but more emphasis on how contestants fare during their interviews with the judging panel,” she said.
Dr Lulli-Marucchi urged members of the community to like her picture on the pageant’s Facebook page as this means she will automatically get her a spot in the next round.
Come the end of April, the pageant will announce the 25 finalists who will compete at the finale for the title of Mrs South Africa.
When she is not working at the hospital’s trauma unit, Dr Lulli-Marucchi is either taking ballet classes or reading about Formula 1. On race days, she can be found, with her husband, at the track.
She told the NEWS that she loves supercars and is in the process of inheriting her father’s Ferrari from the 1970s.
“I am a huge fan of the sport. My ultimate goal is to become the world’s first female Formula 1 doctor,” said Dr Lulli-Marucchi.
