RJ Abood met US superstar SZA backstage at her Auckland concert in 2024.
Not many Kiwi teenagers can say they have been invited to eat fast food on a Los Angeles beach by an international pop star, but RJ Abood was special.
He was so special that after a backstage meet and greet with A-lister SZA, the American singer took him under her wing, taking him on outings, making plans to fly him to the US to spend time with her, and, when the time came, paying for part of his funeral.
The 15-year-old met the All the Stars and Kiss Me More hitmaker, whose real name is Solána Imani Rowe, when he was dying of a rare childhood cancer, less than a year after his own mother had died from another cancer.
In the midst of that tragedy, he was able to find joy in his last months, thanks in large part to the work of a team of medical professionals who specialise in palliative care for children.
The Kāpiti boy’s story comes amid calls for the Government to fund a nationwide service providing this specialist care for kids.
RJ’s sister, Jodie Woodman, said he was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma a month after his mother had her own terminal cancer confirmed. Ewing sarcoma is a group of rare cancerous tumours in the bones or soft tissues.
“It was just so unbelievable that it happened,” said Woodman of the devastating double diagnoses.
RJ responded well to treatment and went into remission. “He got to ring the bell,” she said.
But while on a camping trip in December 2023, months after his mother’s death, he started experiencing bad hip pain.
“We took him back to the hospital and we found out his cancer had spread all through his body and it was basically terminal at that point.”
RJ declined to join in clinical trials, not wanting to put himself through further suffering for something that might not work. He had chemo and radiation to prolong his life.
He and Woodman engaged with the palliative care team, led by Dr Amanda Evans, who is one of only two such specialists in the country.
Evans’ goal is to give children the best deaths possible, including doing all she can to improve their final days and months. Evans told the Herald the way RJ felt after befriending SZA was “so much better than any medication that I could provide him”.
Woodman explained RJ loved the singer and wanted to go to her concert in Auckland in early 2024.
Evans, who had contacts in the music industry, “was able to pull a few strings and get him a meet and greet with her”, Woodman said.
The teen went backstage and spent time with SZA in a VIP area, coming home with her wig that she had gifted him.
“His world had been made, he was ecstatic, he just couldn’t believe that that actually happened.
“He was overwhelmed with excitement. I loved seeing that for him, especially given the circumstances.”
Woodman believed the pair had clicked because of RJ’s fun personality.
“She just liked the type of person he was,” she said.
“RJ was a bit sassy. He had style. He just had this aura about him ... I think they just gelled.”
SZA then invited him to join her on a visit to a marae the next day and struck up a friendship with him, sending messages to him.
“He was just like, he couldn’t believe that he was actually in contact with her and sort of had a personal relationship,” Woodman said. “He was really humbled by it.
“I think he was like, ‘What is my life, I’m really chatting to a superstar’.”
Woodman says SZA had plans to fly RJ to Los Angeles so he could have In-N-Out Burger with her on the beach. The family went as far as renewing RJ’s passport, only for him to become too ill to travel.
“RJ was rapidly declining,” Woodman said.
SZA wanted to do a video call with RJ in his last days but he was too unwell and died in late August 2024.
“I had messaged her the morning RJ had passed away. She ended up giving me a call and sending her condolences. She was really sincere, just lovely. I couldn’t believe she called. She actually offered to pay for his funeral.”
Woodman said she was “gobsmacked” at the offer and initially too shy to accept. Her family encouraged her to accept it and she agreed to let SZA pay for RJ’s funeral home costs.
A few months after his death, SZA messaged Woodman, sharing a photo of a bracelet RJ had given her, which she kept in her home.
Speaking about the experience gave Woodman comfort, particularly as it meant she got to talk about her beloved brother more.
She was full of praise for Evans’ team and what they had done to support RJ at the end of his life.
“They really went above and beyond for RJ. Just the care and effort they put in with RJ, it just made the journey that much easier.”
Health NZ’s acting director of living well, Astuti Balram, has acknowledged there are areas where the public health system could do better over access to palliative care.
The National Palliative Care Work Programme had considered more than 2100 submissions since 2023 for more nationally consistent models of palliative care.
Health NZ was finalising new paediatric and adult models of care and its next step was to develop an implementation plan and a rollout timeframe, Balram said.
“We are committed to improving access to palliative care so that every person, regardless of where they live, can receive the care they need.”
The Herald has contacted SZA’s record label for comment.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice, and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 12 years.