Cameron has battled cancer for almost a year, but now he and his partner say they're stronger than ever. Photo / Tony Nyberg
After battling a shocking cancer diagnosis and treatment, the Blues playmaker and his partner say they’re stronger than ever.
Blues rugby star Cameron Suafoa couldn’t have a wider grin on his face as he places a strong arm around his partner of seven years, Britt Hastings-Kutty, while simultaneously trying to wrangle their beloved pooch, Arlo, into the frame for the Woman’s Day photographer.
Emerging from almost a year of a hellish cancer battle — one that could have cost Cameron, 26, his life — the future for the up-and-coming rugby hardman couldn’t look more different as he relishes his post-cancer era.
“Everything has changed,” he enthuses. “Before the cancer, rugby used to kind of rule my life — everything revolved around it. When I wouldn’t make a team or played a bad game, it would eat me up. Now everything is different. I’m just so happy to be here.”
Cameron’s cancer battle began in August last year when physiotherapist Britt, 26, noticed a bulge in Cameron’s back and urged him to go and get it checked. Immediately, her gut told her something wasn’t right.
“I knew it needed to get checked out,” she tells. “But no one expects a 25-year-old rugby player to get cancer, so while it was looked at, it wasn’t initially considered sinister. As time progressed, the lump was still present, which started the investigations.”
The call they dreaded came while he and Britt were having a nerve-filled holiday in Fiji — it was a cancerous sarcoma tumour and Cameron needed to have surgery.
“I was shocked, so shocked,” Cameron remembers. “It was disbelief really.”
Adds Britt, “My heart just sank. We’d been waiting for this call for so long and it kept getting delayed because it turns out that this type of cancer is so rare. But I instantly started to really worry.”
While the sarcoma, a form of cancer that affects connective tissue such as muscles and bones, was initially thought to be low-grade, tests eventually discovered it was high grade and, says Britt, “very sinister”.
With Cameron in a considerable amount of denial — “I didn’t treat it as seriously as it actually was, if I’m honest,” he tells — Britt worried enough for both of them as Cameron first had surgery to remove the tumour, and then radiation treatment to ensure all the cancer cells were eliminated.
“We’ve reflected back on how we handled it,” says Britt. “Maybe we didn’t deal with it in the best possible way, especially with Cameron just not really accepting what was happening to him. We didn’t tell a lot of people what was going on — I mean, he’s in hospital and he’s thinking that he’ll be able to get out and go to Crate Day!”
“Yeah, that didn’t happen,” Cameron adds with a rueful grin. “They told me I could leave hospital when I could walk by myself, so I tried on the first day and fainted. The poor tiny nurses who were trying to hold me up … I’m not a small guy. I definitely tried to push myself in recovery, which maybe wasn’t the best approach.”
Cameron was determined to carry on as normal and, incredibly, played multiple games for the Blues during his radiation treatment until his body simply couldn’t cope.
Cameron says, “I was trying get back to top rugby as fast as I could — it was a good thing and bad thing, I guess. It gave me drive to get through it all, but I definitely could have looked after myself a lot better.”
But, unfortunately, the hits kept coming for the devoted couple, with Britt herself having to have surgery on her anterior cruciate ligament and her grandmother dying in Vanuatu. It was also about this time that Britt realised there was a real possibility of losing Cameron.
“There were definitely times that I wasn’t sure if he would get through it,” Britt admits. “And there were times where I definitely didn’t cope — it was hit after hit after hit. It was a really, really tough time.
“It just wasn’t fair, you know? He’d had the best year of his career – he’d played for the Māori All Blacks and had been called up to the All Blacks, and then he gets cancer? My heart broke for him – he’s finally made it and this happens?”
Both Cameron and Britt received mental health support as they battled through, although it was still hard for Britt to watch Cameron push himself to recover as fast as he could.
“There were clear signs he wasn’t coping very well too — and I wish we’d stepped in earlier to get him to take a break,” says Britt.
“It was a lot for me to deal with, especially as we don’t have a lot of family around. I just wanted what was best for Cameron, both physically and mentally, in the long term.”
The pair relied on each other heavily throughout this time. Britt, the far more outgoing of the two, tried to keep spirits up as best she could while taking on a lot of the worry, while Cameron did his best to remain calm and focused on the tasks at hand.
“Britt was amazing,” he says. “I couldn’t have got through it without her. I’m naturally a pretty blasé kind of person, whereas Britt feels far more than I do. We balance each other out really well and that was really true during this.”
Adds Britt, “I need to be chilled out sometimes and not worry. I wouldn’t have got through all of this either, if he wasn’t so relaxed, so some of the ‘let’s just carry on’ was quite good.”
After the gruelling treatment, which wiped him out completely and eventually put a hold on all rugby and training — Cameron received the all-clear in May and is now cancer free.
Looking back, both Cameron and Britt are still stunned the cancer even happened in the first place, but are relieved to have come out of the experience stronger — both as individuals and as a couple.
“It’s definitely matured us,” says Britt.
Cameron agrees, adding, “Things have been put into perspective for me massively and I understand that actually, it’s okay to not be okay. That’s probably the biggest thing I’ve taken away from all this.”
The pair, who first met at a high school party as 18-year-olds, are celebrating his cancer victory with a holiday to Los Angeles, where they plan on simply “having fun” and not worrying about any of life’s big stuff.
Since coming through the ordeal, Cameron’s now an ambassador for the newly launched Sarcoma Foundation and aims to increase awareness of sarcoma and how it can affect young people especially — a fact he knows all too well.
“One of my best mates, Teina, passed away from leukaemia when we were 17,” Cameron shares. “So if my story can inspire just one person to get checked, then it’s worth it.”
Seeing soft-spoken Cameron so outside his comfort zone has been awe-inspiring for Britt, who couldn’t be prouder of her partner.
“He’s just amazing,” she enthuses. “To have been through what he’s been through and to have this incredible attitude and drive, he’s just brilliant.”
As for Cameron, after his well-deserved holiday, he’ll be focusing on getting back to full fitness.
“Honestly, I’m just really looking forward to only worrying about rugby!”