" Petro Groenewald suffered with back problems
for many years until she decided that enough
was enough. The Klass Vaki, KBS 2000 Body
Support System, now even being exported to
countries in Asia, is the fruit of her labour! "

At the age of eighteen, Petro Groenewald, tested her golf prowess for the first time. With her first tee-off she experienced a perfect example of beginners’ luck and thought that it was her lucky day. Sadly though, and as she says in her own words, "this cost me thirty years of my life."

She played golf the whole day but experienced a very stiff back that night. By the next morning her back muscles where in a spasm and she could hardly get out of bed. She immediately went to her chemist and was assured that she had "only pulled a muscle." This was the beginning of Petro’s nightmare.

She used to do ramp modeling but all this time her back continued to deteriorate, resulting in her collapse during a modeling session. At first a thorough medical examination followed by blood tests and then one traction session after the other, each consecutive one making her scream with pain and cry like a baby.

Eventually out of sheer desperation she traveled from one country to the other seeking a solution for her problem. To make these long flights bearable she had to have cortisone injections says Petro, who lives with Johan, her husband, in Durbanville, a northern suburb of Cape Town, South Africa.

One day while lying in bed at Tygerberg Hospital she noticed how a woman, in the bed opposite her, was being supported by cushions and thought, "If one can have relief from pain for even five minutes by doing this then surely there must be a long term solution. My bed was my worst enemy for I only managed to sleep for an hour or so each night. As soon as I lay down, it felt as if I was going to die of pain."

It was then that she suspected that her problem was being aggravated by the conventional flat surface of the bed not giving enough support to the muscles on either side of the spinal column and lower back. Her idea started taking shape. In 1989 she developed a type of support-cushion. The morning after having slept on it for the first time she was in tears again, but this time they were tears of joy!

"When I woke up that morning, I knew that I had eventually discovered a way to beat the pain. I added more and more to it and this was how my first Klass Vaki Body Support System developed, piece by piece."

Over the years the Klass Vaki has improved greatly. This was a miracle for Petro. Although her invention did not receive the recognition it deserved, the demand for it increased daily. In 1997 at an international exhibition in London she won a gold and silver medal for her contribution towards back pain relief management.

Her biggest breakthrough then was when she met a Chinese businessman in 1998 who suffered with backache and coincidentally owned a mattress factory in the East. She told him about her product, he tried it and was so thankful with the wonderful results, that he placed a large order and started to market it in his own country.

"To export to Asia is every entrepreneur’s dream. I am being inundated with orders from Europe and America and can barely keep up with the demand. My latest addition is a Klass Vaki especially developed for people with bedsores. I have big plans for this year, but that is another story…"