#WomensMonth: Pauline is Waterfall’s wonder woman

DETERMINATION, strength and the need to ensure the survival of her patients is what drove the pharmacist, and owner of the KZN Link Hills Pharmacy at Watercrest Mall, Pauline Randles, to brave the recent unrest that shook the province to its core.

When the looters hit Watercrest Mall, Randles watched the live CCTV footage of a looter grab a fire hydrant and smash his way into the store. Dozens of men and women swarmed into her store.

“When he entered, my heart sank. While they stole some items off the shelves, they deliberately targeted the server that runs the pharmacy and they systematically smashed or looted all of the computer equipment, preventing our trading or dispensing of medicines. I was in a state of shock, actually. When they came in, they trashed the store. It’s almost like they didn’t want us to function again. I visualised all of these drugs being taken and I thought ‘no’,” she said.

Randles was in function mode and came up with a plan to return to the store at first light to retrieve what was left of the medicine in the pharmacy.

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“My patients come first,” she said. “I have patients who would have suffered without their chronic medication especially my cancer patients.”

With the support of her neighbour, patrollers as well as security, Randles and her partner, Tony Hind, packed as much as they could into trolleys and exited via the back entrance. Not satisfied with that, she returned to the pharmacy to remove what was left on the shelves. She only left the Upper Highway mall after she was instructed to do so by security personnel, who deemed it unsafe for her.

At her home, the medication was placed in alphabetical order in containers and boxes across any open and safe surface. Randles, alongside a team of her dedicated staff, began dispensing the urgent and chronic medicines from her home, without the necessary computer-based infrastructure.

“We had more than 1 000 WhatsApp messages and almost as many phone calls from desperate patients,” said Hind.

Patients formed queues outside her home, and others waited outside on the street, following a simple handmade sign, ‘pharmacy collections’, with an arrow that directed them to the front door. This is where the medicines were dispensed, sometimes on trust alone.

“It’s a matter of trust on both sides,” said Randles, who, for the first day, dispensed without pricing guidelines until she was able to load the ordering system onto her computer. “Each transaction was recorded on a simple notepad based on an estimated price, the cash was collected and held in an envelope on the understanding that any short payments would be paid to the pharmacy, and overpayments would be refunded, once the pharmacy server was up and running again.”

This selfless service to the community was a much-needed gift of goodwill and something that could hold no price tag.

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Randles endured a shift that went well above 24 hours and exhaustion would eventually set in as her tireless work through the nights would have a limit.

Her makeshift ‘at home’ pharmacy was hailed as one of the ‘best things’ that could have happened to the Hillcrest and Waterfall patients living in the looted hotspot as it provided them with a much-needed medical service that went beyond the call of duty.

“What is humanly possible can outstrip adversity in any situation. I stand together and congratulate this unseen woman. She is the champion of her patients. While others carry flames of deceit and greed, Randles carries a different kind of flame, a flame that will burn brightly and shine a light, amidst the darkness of destruction,” said her close friend, Sheryl Deane.

Returning to her store, Randles weaved her way past builders as they put the finishing touches on shop fittings. Sitting at her desk clad in plastic wrap, she said, “In the greater scheme of things, we weren’t damaged to a point where we weren’t able to open at all. It was very stressful but I have huge faith and it has pulled the community together in a way that I am absolutely gobsmacked.”

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