Songstress Lerato Molapo – affectionately known as Lira – has spoken publicly for the first time since suffering a stroke in April 2022.

The Feel Good hitmaker had a sit-down with her friend and neighbour Relebogile Mabotja on a segment called The Upside of Failure on Radio 702.The 44-year-old musician said that people have been asking her to share her story but she wasn’t ready because she couldn’t talk and she wasn’t ready to speak in a conversation.

 

 

 

 

“But now I’m ready and my speech impediment doesn’t bother me, it did before. I’m here to share my story,” she confidently said.

The former The Voice SA judge revealed six months after suffering a stroke that she had been diagnosed with aphasia – a disorder that results from damage to portions of the brain that are responsible for language, according to NIDCD. HOW THE STROKE HAPPENED
Lira was on tour in Frankfurt, Germany, when she had a stroke. The singer had arrived two days before the gig she was supposed to perform at with a Swedish band.

“I had a stroke at about 16:30pm,” Lira said.

“The sensation lasted about 15 minutes. It wasn’t pain. It was an uncomfortable feeling in my head.”

At the time, the Ngyazifela songstress was alone.

“I walked into a restaurant and I wanted to ask them where my hotel was, I wasn’t lost, but I had been walking around. The hotel was nearby. I intended to ask them and my voice didn’t come out.”

Lira said she was shocked to learn that she couldn’t read too when she tried calling her partner.

“I was having a bad nightmare; I can’t read, I can’t write and I can’t speak. I called my partner and he didn’t know what was going on. Nobody could tell something was wrong with me because I was [looking] normal.”

Her partner alerted her manager who got her help and when she got to the hospital the nurse told her that she had suffered a stroke.

“I was shocked. I’m too young to have a stroke. Not me, not me. I cried because how was I going to tell my parents.”

Lira shared that since having a stroke, she values life a bit more.

“When you have [a] stroke, it calms you from the stress of life. When I’m stressed, I can’t speak, so it is important for me to keep calm and peaceful.”