I was born in Durban, South Africa, which is a coastal town in the south east. My mother was 46 when she gave birth to me. My dad had died in September, the year before and as a result I didn't get to meet him in the flesh. But I have since learnt so much about him from my brothers and sisters. My parents had 14 children in total and I obviously was the last born. My eldest brother also died in the same car accident as my dad, so I never got to meet him either. My mother raised me as best she could, but I was also influenced by my siblings very much. They have all had an impact in my life in some way.

I grew up in the Austerville community in the south of Durban. I'm from a mixed race family, and the community I grew up in was mixed raced. The apartheid system in South Africa ensured that races lived in their designated areas. I had a farily pleasant childhood living in Austerville. But my small stature made me susceptible to bullying in primary school. I hated violence and had my fair share of being bullied mostly from kids during my walk home from school.

I attended one of the local high schools in Austerville called Fairvale Secondary for the first 2 grades of high school. I then attended a school in Port Shepstone called Marburg Secondary for the last 3 years of my high schooling where I took Computer Studies as a subject. I excelled at Computer Studies and enjoyed programming very much. I knew from then that I would one day work as a software developer.

After high school I attended the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, which is now called the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). I completed a BSc in Computer Science and Chemistry. My brother Ross was already living in the USA with his family by the time I completed my studies. I was fortunate to be able to visit them in the US for 6 months after I completed my undergraduate degree. When I returned home from the US, I landed my first job as an Oracle developer. This job took me to the UK for a period of about 4.5 years.

Once I was able to get indefinite leave to remain in the UK, I returned to South Africa to pursue a career in music. I was accepted into the BMus jazz performance programme at UKZN. I eventually dropped out of university for a variety of reasons. Nevertheless it was an extremely fruitful experience and I learnt so much about jazz piano and music in general. Making a living as a musician can be extremely challenging. As a result, I returned to fulltime IT work and did music on a part-time basis, as a side-hustle.

At present, I am just taking it one day at a time. I believe that life is to be enjoyed. We all face challenges in life, and I don't know how to live apart from the grace of the Lord Jesus. The times in my life where I pretended like He doesn't exist and did my own thing were not the best times at all. So, I am moving forward, walking by faith, looking at Him, being transformed into His likeness knowing that He is the One who is Life and is my life. I am grateful to have an awesome mentor in my older brother Ross.