“I just loved seeing how I could help people turn their lives around by just listening to them, being empathetic and giving them the skills to move themselves forward and take control of their pain or their lifestyle.
“It was really a continuation of my work with guiding, in a way,” Janice said.
Janice was made redundant from Arthritis New Zealand a year before she was set to retire, and wasn’t sure what her next step was. But a few years later a friend approached her about a new job.
The friend asked Janice if she would consider joining the Cancer Society executive board.
Janice agreed to join, thinking “why not?” as her mother had died from a form of cancer.
Once she joined the Hawke’s Bay Cancer Society executive, she was asked to join the Central Districts executive as well, which meant many visits down to Palmerston North for meetings.
Janice has now been working with the Cancer Society for nine years, the first eight as the Hawke’s Bay branch president.
At the Cancer Society AGM in Palmerston North this month, Janice was awarded the Distinguished Service Award for her outstanding contribution to the Cancer Society.
“I felt extremely blessed and humbled to receive the award, because volunteering is just what I do, it’s just part of me,” she said.
Janice was presented with a certificate, a button pin and a “lovely” kōwhai tree, which she had planted in a pot in her garden.
The award winner said, “The kōwhai tree was such a nice gift and is something tangible that I can look at and think back to my days with the group.”
Janice was chosen for the award because of her work finding the Hawke’s Bay branch a new and useable space, as well as to recognise her dedication to attending all the Cancer Society events, her ability to provide advice and be a sounding board for staff.
During her time as Hawke’s Bay Cancer Society president, the group sold its Nelson St property and was renting a space from Little Elms Charitable Trust and Janice was trying to find Hawke’s Bay Cancer Society a new property.
For three years she spent a lot of time looking at properties, researching and then visiting the places and looking at how they could be adapted for the society’s needs.
“It was just wonderful, for me that was the crux of my whole time as part of the Cancer Society executive. Finding the staff and volunteers a new home and to actually see that come to realisation was amazing. I was in tears when the land agent told us we had the property,” Janice said.
She explained the house was in perfect condition and the gardens were immaculate, making the property the perfect space for staff and clients.
“It was lovely and I just felt such relief that our job as an executive had been to find a new home and we achieved it - I couldn’t have done it without the team, but it was certainly my passion to find the staff and volunteers a new place.”
Hawke’s Bay Centre officially opened the new Hawke’s Bay Cancer Society Centre in September 2022.
