Theunis grew up in Port Elizabeth close to the beach.  The surroundings of his hometown gave him a profound love for the outdoors, especially the ocean which has inspired many of his hobbies, such as swimming, rowing, and spearfishing. He also recently took up surfing alongside his wife. His holidays typically include searching for rare birds in desolate locations with the help of his loving family.

Ophthalmology is not only a job for him, but also his biggest hobby.  He is a real surgeon at heart and working inside the eye is one of his greatest joys.  He has followed this passion from early medical school days to today, and it has taken him and his family to all the provinces within South Africa, from studying to numerous tours for the blind.  He has even operated in Malawi where he serviced an under privileged community.  On these tours, multiple cataract surgeries are done on a day.  His highlight was operating 101 cataract blind patients in 4 days on an outreach in Limpopo.

Today he sees himself as a Refractive Surgeon, with a special interest in presbyopia corrections and fixing irregular corneas with his excimer laser. He has also built a reputation for hitting target with almost every cataract operation he does, seeing this procedure as an opportunity to gain spectacle independence when possible. He utilizes all varieties of specialized refractive surgery procedures to address any size of refractive error, including high myopes and hyperopes, as well as any astigmatic error.

Theunis’ life philosophy: one should never compare yourself with someone else, but continually compare yourself to yourself and actively work on improvement while doing this.