She recently graduated with a medical degree from Stellenbosch University.
Anja is the daughter of Dr Alex Revelas and his wife Laura. He is an orthopedic surgeon who runs his own practice in Tzaneen.
“Ever since I was a little girl, I was building hospitals in my dollhouse, using my mother’s white sheets to hang from trees in the garden, mixing flowers and seeds for medicine in the bird bath and bandaging my teddies with my mom’s expensive Elastoplast.
Ward rounds with my dad were the ultimate and getting to help him out in his surgery never felt like a chore,” she told Letaba Herald. However her journey in attaining her degree has not always been a smooth one.
After working hard to pass her matric at Stanford Lake College, she was disappointed when she did not get into medicine.
“My entire world was shattered. Everything seemed wrong.
Everything I had worked for and dreamed about seemed to amount to nothing.
I had only one option left. One last shot at my dream.
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I applied to study BSc at Stellenbosch University with the hope that after a year I could be one of the lucky ones that get to go to the medical campus,” she added.
On her first day of BSc she realised that 300 other students also wanted to study medicine the following year.
She had to be under the top 10 in her class to be selected.
She set a personal goal of achieving 85% average, but it seemed impossible in her mind.
However, something incredible happened in her life, she started an intimate relationship with God and everything changed, all the misery and uncertainty of life disappeared.
“In the midst of my emptiness and despair I had found the very thing people search for their entire lives.
“In prayer and in His presence I truly experienced lasting joy and peace for the first time.
Life had been easy up to that point and I had never needed God before.
“Today I am a qualified doctor, despite the impossible, but what is more, I have found the true secret to this life,” she explained.
Four days after her graduation she got married to Thomas Volker and she is currently doing her her internship in East London.
Her parents say their are bursting with pride with her achievements.
