Rotorua woman Judy Wike Farnham has never been happier.
Despite being told her bladder cancer has returned, she is living life on her terms – travelling, volunteering, honkytonking and making one-minute angels as a way of saying thank you.
The Rotorua Daily Post asked Farnham if she would share a little of her journey in the lead-up to Daffodil Day on Friday and she readily agreed.
Daffodil Day is the New Zealand Cancer Society's largest fundraiser to support the work it does, including research into the causes and treatment of all types of cancer and providing a wide range of services, education and awareness programmes for people affected with cancer. It is held on the last Friday of August and has been held annually since 1990.
Two years ago, Farnham was diagnosed with cancer. At the time of her diagnosis her late husband Jim was gravely ill with lung cancer and she was caring for him around the clock.
He died just over a year ago.
"I did my radiation and the chemotherapy and have had regular checks in the interim. After the most recent one I was told it had potentially come back."
Receiving the news five days before she was due to fly out to the United States and Hawaii, Farnham asked her surgeon if she was able to go.
"He said to go and have a great time.
"One of my stops was Nashville. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven, a heaven where the angels don't play violin, they play the steel guitar. I was out honkytonking until the wee hours three nights in a row."
Farnham, who was born in Louisiana, said she wasn't sure her surgeon meant to have as good a time as she did.
"I didn't do anything illegal or immoral," she laughed. "But what I did do, I have no idea where I found the energy for."
Now back in New Zealand, Farnham is facing further surgery and is unable to undergo radiation or chemotherapy a second time.
"It is what it is and I'm not one to sit around and feel sorry for myself, life is too short for that."
When nursing her husband through his cancer but before she found out about her own, the couple stayed at the Cancer Society's Lions Lodge in Hamilton, a place Farnham returned to when she was having her own treatment.
"The place is incredible. It's like a hotel and the people there are amazing – the one good thing about cancer is the fantastic people who you meet along the way."
She said they had both also been recipients of the Cancer Society's programmes and support.
As a way of giving back, Farnham makes angels as Daffodil Day approaches and drops them to the Rotorua branch of the Cancer Society to be sold alongside the daffodils.
"Last year I made 450 and the society made $450, this year I've made 800 angels so hopefully they'll make a bit more."
The angel idea was "borrowed" from an Auckland rest home where Farnham was visiting one day.
"I bought one of the angels and copied it. However, most angels I make are in the Cancer Society colours of blue and yellow."
Farnham crochets blankets for Plunket, Hospice and international orphanages. She also crochets little hearts and keeps them in her pocket to hand out when she is carrying out her volunteer job as a FED or Friend of the Emergency Department.
"Both Jim and I spent quite a bit of time at the hospital so it's nice to be able to give back there also and I like to keep busy."
In additional to planning another overseas excursion for next year, Farnham also attends a cancer support group through the Cancer Society.
"There's not nearly as many people at these meetings as there should be. I firmly believe people should be talking about cancer and helping spread the message that people need to get things checked out.
"There was no pain with my cancer, often there isn't, but I did have signs something wasn't right, and I went to the doctor."
Look out for Farnham's angels when the Daffodil Day volunteers are out on the streets this week.