Cancer Society Waikato/Bay of Plenty chief executive Helen Carter.
The Cancer Society is planning to build a $30 million lodge in Tauranga providing free accommodation, meals and appointment transport for Bay of Plenty cancer patients.
The plan for a 40-room lodge near Tauranga Hospital, providing similar services to the organisation’s Lion’s Lodge in Hamilton, has been revealed after hitting a major funding milestone.
In 2024, Cancer Society Waikato/Bay of Plenty chief executive Helen Carter spoke of its “mighty dream” to build a Tauranga facility, but said finding the right site was “like pulling a rabbit out of a hat”.
Carter said the lodge was needed because some Eastern Bay of Plenty cancer patients were “compromising” on treatments because of the costs and logistics of getting to Tauranga.
Carter this week told the Bay of Plenty Times the project had gone from “a long-held vision to a real and achievable goal and momentum”.
She said the Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust (TECT) had provided the Cancer Society with a $5m “foundational donation”, which had been “the catalyst” for the project’s momentum.
“They have enabled us to send a very strong signal which is real, urgent, ready and they’ve really unlocked this project to move forward.”
Carter said community support had also raised $5m.
“This is a $30m project, and we’ve now got a third of that ... ”
Carter said the site was “five minutes from the hospital” and looked forward to announcing the location after settlement.
The priority was now raising the $20m balance, and Carter urged community partners and philanthropists “to help us complete this project”.
Her goal was to raise the balance this year and start construction early next year.
The build was estimated to take between 18 months and two years.
“The clock is ticking ... the families need it today.”
Carter said a cancer diagnosis was a “relentless, unfolding pathway of physical, emotional, financial challenges”.
“Behind every appointment and every mile travelled is a person and their whānau fighting.”
Carter said the facility would “transform cancer care for the Bay”.
She said global research showed patient outcomes deteriorated the further they lived beyond 30 minutes from a treatment centre.
“It will make a huge difference to people and their wellbeing and their opportunity to not just survive cancer treatment but for us to support people to do as well as they possibly can ...
“We want to ensure that everyone facing cancer in the Bay of Plenty can access treatment, is surrounded by support and is not alone.”
The facility would also benefit Rotorua cancer patients, particularly men receiving prostate cancer treatment in Tauranga.
“For many men, it’s every day for many weeks.”
Kawerau resident Julie Kelly said plans for the lodge were “absolutely wonderful”.
She had six-and-a-half weeks of daily radiation for rectal cancer in 2024 in Tauranga.
The Cancer Society provided meals and hospital transport, while Health NZ’s National Travel Assistance Scheme paid for a motel in Greerton.
The 63-year-old said she would not have been able to travel after treatment and was “grateful” she could stay in Tauranga.
Even putting the fuel crisis aside, ”not everyone has the money to travel all the time to go back and forth".
Kelly said she would like to organise a fundraiser for the lodge, “because every second person in Kawerau or Whakatāne has had to go to Tauranga for treatment or surgery or whatever”.
She had since returned to work and was “doing okay now”.
A TECT statement on April 1 confirmed its $5m funding for a new cancer lodge in Tauranga.
This followed support for the project during community consultation on TECT’s 2026/27 funding plans.
TECT chairman Mark Arundel said feedback showed strong support for the overall direction of TECT’s plan, particularly the need to address “longstanding gaps” in community facility infrastructure.
Submissions supporting TECT funding the lodge said the facility would provide important support for patients having cancer treatment and benefit families in stressful situations.
Submissions arguing against the funding said it was “encroaching” on central government responsibilities, and the Cancer Society should fund the lodge.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.