Advocacy
Helena began her advocacy journey through her writing. Her 2011 Mail & Guardian article on Mandela was commended as “thought-leadership”. She then wrote a series of articles for the South African Sunday Newspaper “City Press”. She published Before Forever After in 2017. A Mellon Foundation award in 2020 allowed her the opportunity to create an audio book. A further outcome was the decision to enter into a partnership with Ngiphiwe (Mapi) Mhlangu and co-found the Not for Proft Organisation, The LoveLegacyDignity (LLD) institute. www.lovelegacydignity.com
Mapi & Helena run programmes, provide resources and write. Helena has trained as a hospice counsellor, an end-of-life guide, and is a certified grief educator.
LLD supports the South African Advance Directives Campaign which aims to strengthen the legal standing of this end-of-life decision-making document.
Let’s Talk: Archbishop Tutu’s Ultimate Legacy of Leadership
– Before Forever After
Archbishop Tutu welcomed me into the visitor’s room at his offices in the Clock Tower building overlooking Cape Town’s waterfront. We had a follow-up appointment to continue our conversation about dying, which had begun several months before. He directed me where to sit so that he would be able to hear me better with his good ear. We agreed where I should best place the recorder. And as is his customary practice, the Archbishop began our session with a prayer.
Nation needs to be ready to let Mandela go
On Wednesday, 26 January 2011, I left the television on. Cameras zoomed in on reporters camped outside Milpark hospital in Jo’burg.
How close were we to losing our beloved Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela? And how much of our national identity would we lose with his passing?
On Friday afternoon, as Siphiwe the pharmacist processed my mom’s scripts, he said: “I’m feeling sad. I heard Madiba died this morning. A friend of mine is close to the family.” My eyes brimmed with tears as I remembered how attentive Madiba was after my husband Joe Slovo died. He called regularly in those first months, simply asking: “How are you?”
To Life with love.
Playwright Mike Van Graan credits that he drew insiration from Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal and Helena Dolny’s Before Forever After.
Playwright Mike Van Graan’s post.
21 st July 2025.08.28
TO LIFE WITH LOVE to run at the Societas Theatre
“With many requests for a longer run of the play, I’m delighted to announce that
TO LIFE WITH LOVE featuring John Maytham will be performed at the pop-up Societas
Theatre, 55 Kloof Steet, Cape Town from 12-30 August 2025
I happened to sit next to (radio talk-show host/actor)John Maytham at a concert that
the Baxter theatre (in 2024) who suggested that I write a play that he could perform.
With a blank canvas, I devised To Life, With Love, a one-person show inspired by
Atul Gawande’s international bestseller Being Mortal and drawing on Helena Dolny’s
book, Before Forever After.
To Life, With Love is a poetic piece featuring the character Thomas Michael
Faulkner. Thomas has experience love, professional success, personal loss and
affirmation. Then, in his sixties, Thomas is diagnosed with a dread disease. There is
a great chance of recovery, but confronted by his mortality, and with a good many
years ahead, Thomas makes choices about how he will live.
Wherever the piece has performed – Artscape, the Galloway Theatre at the
Waterfront, Drama Factory in Somerset West, Franschhoek Literary Festival and
Sedgefield – it has resonated with audiences across a range of demographics.