Tauranga mother Marena Gregory had just laid her father to rest when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“It felt like I was going back through that trauma again ... I was the one who took him to the MRI scans ... his radiation, his chemo,” said Gregory, whose father died of a cancerous brain tumour.
Now 38, getting a breast cancer diagnosis at 36 meant the mother of three had to stop her nursing studies to undergo a “very heavy approach” to treatment.
“It was definitely the roughest road I think I’ve walked.”
Gregory lives with her children, Ellaye, 19, Dylan, 17, and Kelsey-Lee Taare, 15.
She is sharing her story for the Dry July campaign — an annual challenge where participants give up alcohol for a month while raising funds for non-medical services for cancer patients in New Zealand, including Pinc and Steel, which has supported Gregory with physiotherapy rehabilitation.
Last year, more than 7500 Kiwis raised more than $1.2 million for New Zealanders affected by cancer, as the Dry July NZ Trust calls for more people to register this year.
It comes as Tauranga mother Celia Farnworth — who has also used Pinc and Steel services — believes she has been given a “second chance” after surviving ovarian cancer.
Sitting at a picnic table in Mount Maunganui’s Pilot Bay, Gregory told the Bay of Plenty Times her initial symptom was a “stabbing pain” in her right breast.
“One day I just noticed the lump in the same spot.”
Gregory’s doctor referred her to a specialist. Scans and a biopsy confirmed she had stage two breast cancer in December 2022.
As a nursing student, Gregory said the day she got her diagnosis, “I knew”.
“I saw the ultrasound and learning the basics with nursing about skin and tissues ... I could see the dark spot ... that [didn’t] look like a healthy tissue.”
After recently losing her father, being diagnosed with cancer herself meant she “went to another headspace”, she said.
She was told she had a “good chance” of beating it, but doctors were concerned about the size of it and took “the very heavy approach” for treatment.
Gregory said she had 16 rounds of chemotherapy, during which she lost her hair and experienced fatigue, aches, and pain.
She had a partial mastectomy and 20 sessions of radiation therapy.
After finishing her treatment in January , Gregory engaged with Pinc and Steel to help with her recovery.
“My strength had gone; I had no balance ... no social life.
“I can’t even explain ... how shut down my body was.”
Gregory participated in the paddleboarding programme in Pilot Bay.
She felt a “holistic” approach was missing during her clinical treatment.
“That’s where Pinc and Steel really filled that cup up for me.”
Gregory — who has recently been told she is in remission — is now training to become a rongoā Māori practitioner, doing mirimiri (massage) and a business course.
“I’d love to build my own hauora clinic.
“I’m going down the holistic pathway to give back to our communities ... "
Gregory also encouraged wāhine Māori to get checked for breast cancer if they had symptoms.
“Don’t be whakamā [ashamed, embarrassed] — check in on yourself because at the end of the day, no one else will.”
Pinc and Steel senior cancer rehabilitation physiotherapist Shannon Fisken, who works at Body in Motion, previously told the Bay of Plenty Times Dry July’s “game-changer” funds helped fund group cancer rehabilitation.
Fisken said it relied on charitable funding because there was no government funding for cancer rehabilitation.
All funds donated to Bay of Plenty Cancer Rehab would go towards the region’s cancer patients, she said.
Dry July NZ Trust spokeswoman Clare O’Higgins said, “Every dollar makes an impact,” and it was grateful to everyone who donated.
A media release said funds raised would support three cancer charities — Look Good Feel Better, Prostate Cancer Foundation New Zealand, and Pinc and Steel Cancer Rehabilitation Foundation.
Since 2012, the Dry July NZ Trust has raised more than $9 million for cancer organisations throughout New Zealand.
The trust was stressing the high demand for cancer support with more Kiwis developing cancer, due to the population increasing and people living longer.
People can register for Dry July on its website.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.