A mother who campaigned for the Government to lower the bowel screening age has died.
Jackie Robertson, 48, was holding her mother Sharon Robertson’s hand on Saturday morning as she died peacefully at Waikato Hospice.
“Jackie was a fighter to the end. My last words to her were, ‘stop fighting and let go’. It was cruel to see her like that, I said, ‘Please go. I don’t want you to suffer anymore.’ She had a little smile on her face when she died,” Sharon said.
Robertson received her diagnosis of stage four bowel cancer in November 2023 - an unexpected shock for the woman who ran marathons and was a competitive horse rider.
Her mother told the Herald Robertson did not want to die, and even tried to travel to Tauranga last week for radiation treatment against her doctor’s orders, when she was too weak to get out of bed.
Robertson had a son, Zac, with her former husband, Olympic rower Eric Murray. The pair divorced seven years ago and shared custody of Zac, who is non-verbal and on the autism spectrum.
“My ex-husband has been there for Zac, but he has chosen a path not to support me, which is unfortunate because I supported him through his sporting career,” Robertson previously told the Herald.
Zac will now live with Murray in Cambridge, Sharon told the Herald. Murray declined to comment when approached about his former wife’s death.
Last Wednesday, Zac said goodbye to his mother with a kiss, Sharon said. He sat with her and held her hand, making a love heart with his hands as he left.
After Robertson had died, Sharon took Zac to say a final goodbye to her at the funeral home.
“I said ‘Zac you can kiss mum, but she might be a bit cold, her heart has stopped beating’. He knew his mum had gone and threw her a kiss as he left. He won’t be attending her funeral - it’s a bit too much for him. He is going away with his father,” Sharon said.
Sharon said her daughter had been fit and healthy and it had been a huge shock to discover she had colorectal cancer that had spread to her liver.
“I had abnormal bowel movements, an upset tummy and loose poos. After a bowel motion, there was a lot of blood in the toilet,” Roberston previously told the Herald.
Every year, more than 3300 New Zealanders are diagnosed with bowel cancer, and more than 1200 die from the disease.
In 2024 the Government terminated plans for Māori and Pacific people - who are at higher risk of the disease - to access screening at 50 years old.
Then, last March, it announced the screening age would be lowered from 60 to 58 for all New Zealanders.
This went against official advice, which recommended that lowering the screening age to 56 for Māori and Pacific peoples would save “significantly” more lives.
Robertson wanted free bowel cancer screening for all Kiwis over 45, even protesting last year at Parliament, calling for change.
Robertson had private health insurance to cover her medical costs, but last December a Givealittle page was set up for her in an attempt to fund Bevacizumab (Avastin), which isn’t publicly funded but can prolong life.
Bowel Cancer New Zealand said Bevacizumab is a targeted therapy for metastatic colorectal (bowel) cancer.
The page raised $23,000 - and if it raises any more, the donations will go to Hospice, Sharon said.
Before she died, Robertson arranged for the remaining four months’ supply of the drug to be gifted to another patient through her oncologist.
“People shouldn’t have to remortgage their houses or set up Givealittle pages,” Robertson told the Herald earlier.
“We shouldn’t be living in a third-world country; we shouldn’t have to pay to live.”
Sharon said she is proud of her daughter, who fought hard and kept up to date with cancer research, clinical trials and new treatments.
“That’s why Jackie became so involved in bowel cancer awareness and lobbying the Government for publicly funded medication. She said, ‘If I don’t know what is out there, I don’t have a chance’.”
Robertson’s funeral will be held at 11 am on Friday March 6 at the Takapoto Estate Boatshed, 90 Finlay Rd, Maungatautari.
Carolyne Meng-Yee is an Auckland-based investigative journalist who won Best Documentary at the Voyager Media Awards in 2022. She worked for the Herald on Sunday from 2007-2011 and rejoined the Herald in 2016 after working as an award-winning current affairs producer at TVNZ’s 60 Minutes, 20/20 and Sunday.