When Norman “Naz” Bradshaw was told he had cancer, he remembers feeling “actually quite happy”.
The 41-year-old father-of-two was simply relieved to have answers after years of pain that led him to nearly lose a leg.
Bradshaw has been a firefighter for nearly 16 years and says it’s the “best job in the world”. But the 41-year-old has been battling more than just blazes - in 2016, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Now, the Ōtara Fire Station officer features on the 2026 Kiwi Firefighters Calendar to raise funds for Movember. Behind the six-pack and the impressive tattoo sleeve is a personal health battle that started more than a decade ago.
“We just always thought it was sports-related because I was doing a lot of snowboarding and running and things like that,” he tells the Herald.
“But the pain just got more persistent.”
He went to his GP in 2014, wondering if he’d torn a ligament. Multiple scans, a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon and a biopsy followed. Despite specialists’ concerns it could be cancer, the biopsy came back clear.
“They couldn’t figure out what it was, and this went on for two years,” Bradshaw says.
“[There was] a lot of back and forth, a few surgeries... they tried heaps of different drugs and stuff on me to try and figure out what was going on and get on top of the pain.”
Eventually, he was rushed to the hospital when an MRI showed something was seriously wrong.
“I had heaps of dead tissue in my leg. The doctor said to me, ‘If we can’t figure out what it is this time, we’re going to have to amputate your leg’. By that stage, I was actually prepared to do it because I’d been in so much pain for ages.
“Luckily for me, [I] had surgery, they cleaned my leg out and sent me home. Then I got a call probably a day or two later and they were like, ‘Good news, you’ve got cancer’,” he laughs.
While it was a relief to have answers after years of pain, even more uncertainty lay ahead.
“I had a young family, my daughter who was 3, and we’d just had my second daughter in 2016,” he recalls.
“[I] wanted to be around for them. It was still a bit scary because [we] didn’t know what was going to happen, what this cancer was, what the treatment process was initially, and all the outcomes for it.
“It was definitely quite a shock and I was definitely in a dark place at the time. I won’t lie, it was scary.”
Bradshaw underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the effects of which he “wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy”. Despite the pain and treatment, he kept working to support his young family.
“I was also a builder at the time, but I couldn’t be on my leg anymore... so I had to come up with another plan and still work... I got a little digger and sat on that and did a lot of landscaping.”
He recalls showing up to work sites and vomiting from the chemo, feeling physically weak from the effects of his treatment.
“The doctors would constantly tell me off, saying I was pushing myself too much, not resting enough. But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do for your family.”
He’s now cancer-free after five years of remission. “The doctors say to you when you’re cancer-free, forget about it. It’s just a blip in your life.”
But for Bradshaw, those memories haven’t gone away. “I’ll get a pain in my leg and I’m like, ‘Oh no, is it coming back?’ So it is scary, it does [take] a toll on you.”
As well as his own ordeal with cancer, Bradshaw has another personal reason to fundraise for Movember. In 2018, a close friend and fellow firefighter took his own life.
“He was obviously going through a rough time during a rough time, and I wish that we could have picked up on it more.
“He was really close to me. He supported me right through my cancer treatment as well, helped me out after, was always there for me. It was just a shame that I couldn’t be there for him in his darkest time when he took his life.”
The loss of his mate and his own physical and mental battle with cancer have motivated him to help support others who may be facing similar struggles.
“We’ve got to be there for each other, especially men.
“Men need to know that they need to talk to each other and open up, not hold everything in and bottle it. They need to be aware of their mental and physical health, because the typical male mentality is ‘She’ll be right, I’ll be all right, I’ll take some harden up pills’... it just bottles up until it explodes.”
So when he was asked by Kiwi Firefighters calendar founder Bevin James to feature in the 2026 edition, Bradshaw says, “I was 100% behind it”.
As a firefighter, he already has to stay physically fit and healthy - but prepping for a calendar photoshoot was on another level.
“I definitely like to binge on the treats and eat big meals as well, so the prep for the calendar was definitely, towards the end, quite rough.”
He jokes that he had some explaining to do when he told his wife and daughters he’d gotten a spray tan, and admits there were some nerves on the day of the photoshoot.
To Bradshaw, it was well worth it.
“The message for men out there is get behind and support your friends, check in on each other, make sure that you are talking about things. Get rid of that ‘she’ll be right’ attitude and definitely get yourselves checked out health-wise, physically and mentally.”
The Ministry of Health’s Mortality Collection database shows that more than two in five men in New Zealand are dying prematurely, many of preventable causes.
As first responders, firefighters are constantly confronted with that reality on the job. Movember supports Fire and Emergency New Zealand to research the effects of their work on firefighters’ physical and mental health.
In a survey of 1000 men conducted by the charity this year, nearly 62% said stereotypes aimed at men prevented them from seeking help.
Bradshaw wants that to change.
“If you’re feeling down, even if you don’t want to talk to your friends about it, go and get some other support.
“Go and talk to a professional if you need to, or just somebody that you can trust.”
The 2026 Kiwi Firefighters Calendar is on sale from October 6, available from www.kiwifirefighterscalendar.co.nz and in Paper Plus stores around the country. Proceeds go to Movember and to the Whanaungatanga Programme for firefighters’ wellbeing.