Arohanui: Helping Mum.

Ko Tawhiuau te maunga,

Ko Rangitaiki te awa

Ko Rangipo te wehenga o te tuna

Ko Ngati Manawa te iwi.

In June 2019 our mum, Te Waimatao ‘Wai’ Murphy-Bird, was diagnosed with lung cancer.

It seemed like such an impossibility. Our mum who is a constant in our lives, our mum; the Nan, the Kuia, the Aunty, a leader of our iwi and more, our mum who bore three children but who has helped raise so many more. A pillar of our whanau, a pononga and kaimahi of our iwi, Ngati Manawa, and community Murupara, a mover, a shaker.

Mum was a Foundation member of Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Ruamata in Te Arawa. She was a member of the roopu who established Te Kura Kaupapa Motuhake o Tawhiuau at home in Murupara, the first Kura a iwi in Aotearoa. She was also a foundation member of Nga Kura a Iwi o Aotearoa Inc and its first CEO. She has worked tirelessly for many years in education and iwi and community development. She is passionate about te reo and tikanga Maori.

That is our Mum.

Mum, who has never shied away from a fight, started immunotherapy in August 2019 for 3 cycles with the drug Pembrolizumab. As seems to often be the case the drug was not funded by Pharmac and cost Mum $30,000. However the side effects were too harsh and the treatment had to be stopped. The battle was not ended and mum began chemotherapy in October 2019 for 4 cycles. ending on 3 January this year. As COVID marched its way across the globe, in February and March Mum undertook radiation therapy at Waikato Hospital. We now find ourselves looking at another unfunded drug, Durvalumab. Treatment started on 18 June and is required every 2 weeks. The cost of Durvalumab is $60,000 for 3 months, or $8,576 per fortnight.

As those who have followed a similar path would understand, Mum is exhausted, physically, emotionally and now financially. While mum’s insurance, thankfully, pays for hospital costs the further costs for the unfunded drugs is mounting. Mum is a tough, hard working, but deeply private person. We have decided to reach out on her behalf because we believe she still has lots of fight left and she cannot, we cannot, do it alone.

Mal, Terena & Kororia Manley