Thanks to Cancer Society and everyone who supports Daffodil Day - Nicky Rennie

In a Daffodil Day challenge, Nicky Rennie found herself abseiling down a nine-storey building in Dunedin.

Whanganui-based Nicky Rennie returned to her home town in 2018 while celebrating three decades in broadcasting. She has written a column for the Whanganui Chronicle since 2021.

OPINION

Yesterday was Daffodil Day but as far as I’m concerned, every day is Daffodil Day.

It is the major fundraiser for the Cancer Society throughout New Zealand and takes a monumental organisational effort from not only the Cancer Society but the army of volunteers who generously give their time to help when called upon – and that happens often.

I had cause to visit the Cancer Society the other day and what I can tell you is that it is a very busy place where no one day is the same. Everyone who works there has a common thread of empathy that is intricately woven into all that they do on a daily basis. I prefer the term “living with cancer” rather than dying from it. The experiences the staff there have every single day would break your heart but they handle each case with love, dignity and the utmost respect. They are all human angels.

In my radio career, we were given opportunities to do lots of things to help the community.

The Cancer Society was my favourite cause. In Dunedin, my co-host and I would don our daffodils every year and go collecting while broadcasting live. The key was to look as ridiculous as possible – we nailed it every time.

However, the most memorable time I raised funds for them was a dare that I was given by my co-host. It was just before Daffodil Day and he decided that if I couldn’t raise $1000 by myself for the Cancer Society, I had to be thrown off the side of our nine-storey building. He also reserved the right to change the rules at any stage. One of the other rules was that he wouldn’t let me approach a corporate sponsor for said challenge. Anything for good radio. Sure enough, he changed the rules and upped the ante so I had to raise $5000 but then he decided I was allowed to approach corporate sponsors as well. Game on.

One in three are touched by cancer in some way, shape or form so people’s compunction to give to them is monumental. Nobody gets away unscathed by this horror.

Suffice it to say, if I’m given a challenge or there is some form of competition involved, I’m all in. So I took the ball and ran with it and raised $6500 for the Cancer Society. Then my co-host changed the rules again and said I had to be thrown off the building anyway.

So – I did it because I figured that people who are living with cancer on the daily have far bigger challenges than I do. The only one who was slightly upset about what I was doing was my daughter because she was at the bottom, along with a crowd, and thought I was going to die.

Once I got to the bottom, she ran up to me in tears and gave me a big hug which was lovely, but one of my biggest sponsors who had given $1000 had popped champagne for me at the bottom – now you’re talking.

In Dunedin, my co-host and I would don our daffodils every year and go collecting for the Cancer Society while broadcasting live, writes Nicky Rennie.

I’ve written a three-woman show that raised $20,000 in three nights and I have been Master of Ceremonies at too many Cancer Society fundraisers to count. I do this for my friends who have lost loved ones, my family of whom we have too many to count who have passed away from the dreaded disease, but mostly I do it for the people who are living with it every day. You are heroes, every one of you.

Someone very close to me is living with cancer at the moment and one of the main questions that people ask is “how long has he been given?”.

That’s why I prefer to say living with cancer rather than dying from it. I’m not sure about you but if I’m given a date or a finish line, I’ll aim for it. In a million years, I would never want to be told how long I am meant to survive because my thought process is that then you aim for it. The finish line. No thanks, I’ll just take each day as it comes and consider it a blessing.

I’ve mentioned renowned New Zealand oncologist Dr Christopher Jackson before, but I’ll mention a great quote of his again because it’s timely.

“More people are living with cancer today than dying from it.”

To the people who are caring for someone living with cancer, take a bow. You are doing God’s work and people will tell you that you are doing the most important job in the world and you are, but it’s still bloody hard and you still need to take care of yourself and share the load if you can.

To the Cancer Society, the volunteers and anyone and everyone who helps in some way or donates or bequeaths them money – thank you for supporting my favourite charity.