Daffodil Day volunteer Joan Swift, 74, likes to give something back to the Cancer Society for the support it has given family members afflicted by the illness. Photo / Martin Sykes
Every Daffodil Day for the past 17 years Joan Swift has donned her daffodil-filled hat and blue and gold vest before setting out as a volunteer for the Cancer Society's annual fundraiser.
The society's Auckland area co-ordinator will be up at 5am today helping to organise the dozens
of people who have offered their time to appeal for donations from passers-by.
"We've got a wonderful, terrific group of people working for us but we can always do with a few more," Mrs Swift said.
It's a day the 74-year-old has been planning over the past six weeks, making sure everything's in place so the appeal can raise as much money as it can.
It's also a day that has a personal resonance for Mrs Swift, who has lost seven of her family members to the illness.
"On my father's side of the family my only brother, my father, his parents, his two brothers and one of his sisters all died of cancer. It's a terrible illness."
Mrs Swift, who has worked as a volunteer for the society for the past 33 years and has been involved with Daffodil Day since its inception, said she was compelled to give something back to the organisation that helped her father in dealing with cancer.
"Of course in those days there wasn't any treatment like there is now but I was very grateful to the ladies in Hamilton who used to pick him up and take him in because mum hadn't kept her driver's licence. I thought that when I got time I would like to help them in some way."
Last year, a record $4.6 million was raised and Mrs Swift hopes people will be just as - or perhaps even more - generous today.
"It means so much to me that people care and are only too happy to give ... and of course there are the supporters and volunteers we just couldn't do without."
One in three people in New Zealand is affected by cancer. About 16,000 develop it each year. This figure is expected to rise to 22,000 by 2011.
Population growth, ageing and the increase in obesity are among factors blamed for the rise in the illness.
