Infratil boss right back in the game

Lloyd Morrison. Photo / Mark Mitchell

After a battle with cancer, Lloyd Morrison tells Liam Dann why he still has work to do

Lloyd Morrison is lucky to be alive. Last December he started feeling flat and run-down. He blamed the enormous year he had been through.

Running an investment company with $5 billion of assets, and campaigning publicly to try to lift the nation's economic performance, can take it out of you.

"But it turned out to be a bit larger than that," Morrison says.

Medical tests revealed he had acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), and after some initial chemotherapy at Wellington Hospital it was shown to have adverse cytogenetics (DNA abnormalities), which meant treatment in New Zealand wasn't going to deal with it.

In February he dropped everything and moved to Seattle, where he could be treated with experimental drugs at the world-leading Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre.

The prognosis was not good. Statistically, Morrison says, he probably shouldn't be alive.

But here he is, back in Infratil's Wellington head office, fired up and ready to talk about the challenges facing New Zealand.

Why bother? He's a rich-lister, he has a loving family, friends and is still deeply passionate about his business. So why worry about all the problems facing the country?

It is not a simple question with a simple answer.

Confronting death did not bring with it any great epiphany or revelation, Morrison says.

"I'm not really worried about dying ... I worry about it from my children's point of view."

He is still working on getting well and has chemotherapy every morning.

"I've been lucky enough to be able to track down some experimental medicine which has effectively saved me. Whether it keeps me alive for five years or more, that's another issue, but at least it has arrested what would have otherwise overtaken me."

Despite his retreat to the serene surrounds of America's Pacific Northwest, the aggressive cancer treatment didn't leave him much time for quiet contemplation.

Chemotherapy makes you very sick, nauseous sick. Often it has been "a struggle to get to the end of the day, let alone think", Morrison says.

As you'd expect, he is determined to spend more time with his family and close friends. Those relationships are stronger than ever, he says.