Loran Geddes and her husband, who has left work to be her fulltime carer.
What was meant to be a routine check-up for chest pain ended with a young Waikato woman being diagnosed with aggressive blood cancer.
It was a “real shock to the system” for Loran Geddes, 29, who had noticed symptoms before her leukaemia diagnosis, but assumed they were from her physically demanding job rearing calves.
Geddes and her husband Matt have two children, 3-year-old Harry and 1-year-old Wilson, who was still being breastfed at the time, so she also put it down to hormones.
She noticed “random bruising”, severe night sweats, pale skin, and heavy weight loss.
“[The symptoms], you could explain them all,” she told the Waikato Herald.
“I was a busy working mum with two kids, normally with one attached to me at some point ... [I] never took them [the symptoms] too seriously.”
When she also noticed chest pains in November last year, she decided to see her GP in the Taupō area and had some tests done.
About four hours later, her life turned upside down.
She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), an aggressive cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
“[The doctor] said, we’re 99% sure it’s leukaemia, and Waikato Hospital is waiting for you.”
Within 24 hours of diagnosis, Geddes arrived at the hospital and began high‑dose chemotherapy four days later.
Doctors found mutations that put her in a “high-risk” category, and she was told she urgently required an allogeneic stem cell transplant (bone marrow).
She was placed on the Auckland waitlist with an expected wait time of six months, but delays in accessing the transplant have increased that to nine months.
Her transplant has been moved from May to August.
Geddes was deemed “medically ready” for a transplant after her second round of chemo in January, but has begun a fourth cycle while waiting.
She is currently in remission.
But the pushback means a high chance of relapsing, with her “riskiest period being the first three months of remission”.
“I have to be in remission to go for the transplant,” Geddes said.
“If I were to relapse and we couldn’t get me back into remission before August, then I would need to be pushed back on the wait list, again.”
The delay is “concerning” for her, especially for her kids.
“I’ve got a young family ... they need me at home.”
She said while Wilson doesn’t understand much of what’s going on, Harry does.
“He’s well aware that mummy goes to the hospital to get better, and mummy disappears for a couple of weeks at a time, and she might come home and then go away again.”
Her husband has left work to be her fulltime carer and help take care of the kids.
“[The diagnosis has] also taken him by surprise. [It] changed his life a lot,” she said.
To help with the financial strain and to explore overseas transplant options, a friend set up a Givealittle page.
Her wait is unfolding despite recent Government funding aimed at decreasing transplant delays nationwide.
Last year, the Government announced a $27.1 million investment in stem cell transplant services to help patients “access life-saving treatments without delay”, the release said at the time.
The funding, across three years, would “strengthen the workforce, expand hospital capacity, and upgrade infrastructure”.
This included employing 79 new fulltime staff.
Auckland and Wellington Hospitals would increase inpatient bed space, with eight new beds focused on Auckland’s oncology/haematology patients.
Health New Zealand clinical executive national director Richard Sullivan said an initial $6.11 million annual boost was implemented last year.
The investment allowed for 21 new fulltime staff to be employed in Christchurch and 26 in Auckland, and around five more expected in May.
Sullivan said last year, 125 allogeneic transplants (using a donor) were completed. This was up from 114 in 2024.
In 2027 and 2028, the Government’s investment aimed to increase the number of allogeneic transplants to 160.
Meanwhile, Geddes is still awaiting a transplant, which she describes as the “difference between life and death”.
Sullivan said only Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington hospitals were currently equipped to deliver allogeneic transplants.
Waikato and Palmerston North hospitals could perform transplants using a patient’s own stem cells.
While Geddes believed the Government’s investment was positive, she said it would only help patients in the long term.
“They have no solutions for people like me,” she said.
“It’s a case of, ‘We’ve received funding and our plans are to improve wait times’, ... but what are you going to do to help people like myself now?”
Since December, 110 patients nationwide are waiting for an allogeneic stem cell transplant - 69 of them, including Geddes, in Auckland.
Sullivan said Geddes’ treatment delay was the “result of nationwide capacity constraints for stem cell transplants”.
“While the new funding will reduce the waitlist over the longer term, we recognise this doesn’t help Loran right now.”
Sullivan said transplants were prioritised based on clinical need and length of time, although patients waiting the longest usually were treated first.
He said Geddes was scheduled to get her transplant “no later” than mid-August.
“However, the Auckland team will continue to look for opportunities to bring this forward,” Sullivan said.
The Waikato Herald also approached Health Minister Simeon Brown for comment.
In response to questions, a spokesperson for the minister said ensuring patients needing stem cell transplants can access this life-saving treatment was a “key priority” for the minister.
Brown expected Health New Zealand to continue prioritising this work as part of the investment.
Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.