A wish before dying

Gina Forrester wanted to be a nurse to help and give back to the community.
Then, just weeks ago, this tiny woman with smiling eyes and a soft, sweet voice learned she had terminal cancer and may have just weeks to live.
Now her dying wish is to see Supicio, her loved older brother in the Philippines, who she hasn't seen for more than 10 years. But neither sibling can afford to pay for the flights.
Gina, 48, came to New Zealand from the Philippines 23 years ago to marry Wanganui man Kelly Forrester, who she had been writing to for three years.
The mother of two has worked at the Trafalgar Square Countdown Supermarket in Wanganui for the past 10 years and has been studying toward a nursing degree at UCOL for the past two.
Gina was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago, and it was the wonderful care and help she received during those months that inspired her to take up nursing.
The sudden onset of liver cancer has stunned her nursing colleagues and workmates at Countdown.
Nursing student spokeswoman Erin O'Connell told the Chronicle they all loved Gina.
"She's just an inspiration to us all.
"She's always so kind and so happy - we really love her. "She is very special to us all,' Erin said.
When the students heard Gina wanted to see her brother one last time, they decided to make it happen.
"We all wanted to do something so we decided we'd do our best to bring him out here.'
On Tuesday the nursing students, together with the entire UCOL campus, are raising money to bring Gina's brother from Zamboanga, a city in the southern Philippines, to his sister's bedside.
The student nurses and their lecturers are setting up a nursing station where people can have their blood pressure checked, temperatures taken, or they can chat and ask medical questions . all for a donation.
Catering students will be selling food, with all proceeds to the fund. Hairdressing students will cut hair for the cause and art students will sell art works.
Countdown supermarket manager Braden Crossan said that as well as a collection among the staff, they were setting up and manning a sausage sizzle on the UCOL campus on Tuesday to raise money.
"Gina is the loveliest person. It's important we help out, because everyone here thinks she's just a great person," he said.
Yesterday, in her room at Wanganui Hospice, a bright quilt with messages of love from her colleagues written across the petals of a large embroidered daisy was draped over Gina's lap as she sat smiling at her visitors.
In her hushed room, overlooking a field and gardens, her family, student colleagues and friends were with her, talking quietly.
But little bursts of laughter punctuated the conversation and Gina, serene and beautiful, laughed as well.
She smiled, saying she would so love to see her brother again because she "needed to'.
"To talk of memories, to talk about our lives, to be with each other. Yes, we will have a lot to say,' she said, fingering the petals on the quilt.
Gina was one of six children brought up in the Philippines, and they had been a very close family, she said. A devoutly religious woman, she said her years in Wanganui had been very happy with her husband, Kelly, and two children Jaffe, 21, and Clarissa, 19.
Gina has done a lot a lot of work for the Filipino people in Wanganui and was vice-president of the Wanganui Filipino Association until she became ill.
President Roy Villaceran was also at the hospice with Gina yesterday.
"She is wonderful," he said, his eyes filling with tears. "she works so very hard for all of us - she is very beautiful person.