Linda Boughey
Founder & Chairwoman of Maambo UK
The man behind the reason
Let me tell you about the most amazing man I have ever met: my father, Mr Maambo the man behind the reason I created Maambo.
He studied Metallurgical Engineering at Imperial College London.
He was incredibly intelligent a lifelong learner who was never one to be left behind. Always curious, always exploring the latest technology, he had a mind that never stopped asking questions.
He loved travelling the world, meeting new people, and discovering new ideas. But of all the places he travelled to Mayfair in London stole his heart. Its beautiful buildings, elegant hotels and timeless charm. He would stroll through it whenever he could, briefcase in hand, as if he owned the whole city.
The diagnosis
Then came the day that changed everything: Stage 4 colon cancer.
He never once asked, “Why me?”
He didn’t know how long he had left, but he refused to let cancer take his spirit.
He kept playing golf, flying around the world for meetings, video calling colleagues from bed, even offering to babysit so I could get to the gym. He remained unstoppable.
Every two weeks he flew to Johannesburg for chemotherapy always well dressed, carrying his briefcase which contained his iPad and documents. To anyone watching, he looked like a businessman on a work trip, not a man travelling for treatment.
The light in the room
Each session, he walked into the chemo ward with the big smile everyone knew him for, full of jokes and greeting every patient who made eye contact, chatting with the nurses like he was a doctor doing his rounds.
I often sat by his bedside while he received treatment. We talked about everything from golf, to work meetings, travel plans, life.
He always joked that his hair was “chemo-resistant” because it never fell out.
He never once spoke about dying or complained about the pain or inconvenience of having to fly 2 hours to get treatment.
He always spoke as if he had another fifty years ahead of him.
Everyone’s hype man
Strangers saw a businessman never a victim, never a patient.
Newly diagnosed cancer patients began turning to him for comfort, advice, and laughter.
He became the unofficial therapist of the ward, the one who lifted everyone else up.
He was everyone’s hype man he was living what they were going through.
(Though, truthfully, I’m not sure how much of his advice came from Google 😅.)
Who was there for him?
Through it all, I was proud beyond words. Despite everything, he stayed kind, funny, gentle a man who gave so much of himself to everyone around him.
But I often wondered: Who was there for him?
He had my mother. He had lots of friends. He had family. He was surrounded by love.
Yet none of us had walked in his shoes.
None of us truly understood what it felt like to live with stage 4 cancer and to face it alone in the quiet moments, face it alone behind the i am fine, behind the smile, behind the chemo resistant greying hair.
The why behind Maambo
That question “Who was there for him?” "How did he cope in the quiet moments?" became the heartbeat of Maambo.
Because we all need someone who truly understands us.
Someone who has been there.
Someone who gets what we are feeling or thinking not from a textbook, but from life itself.
Mr Maambo is the why behind Maambo.
He taught me that we need human connection more than we realise, more than we admit, and often when we least expect it.
In his honour
That’s what Maambo is about.
Connection. Understanding. Humanity.
In honour of him the man who made everyone else feel seen, heard, and uplifted
Maambo exists so that no one has to walk through their hardest days alone.
