Get Our Monique Home to NZ

Monique has been working her tail off for three years to return to her home in Motueka Valley, New Zealand. That is where her paradise is. As an intelligent, hardworking single mum in the health care sector, she picked up every shift and put every penny she could aside so that she could come home. The plan was solid, and becoming more real every day.

A year ago, she made a detailed, realistic plan to put a yurt on Charlie and Dr Craig's property so she could get her own house and property ready to be the permaculture paradise she'd always imagined it could be, including eco-friendly respite for veterans, particularly those living with PTSD. The yurt is partially paid for and she'd set a date for 11 January to come home.

Our dear Monique started feeling tired and had been symptomatic for months, yet continuing to pick up every possible shift so she could make it happen. They thought it was all in her head, they thought she was just stressed... and on 9 September, after a particularly bad few days, her GP took the right blood tests and she was rushed to hospital.

Since then, she has nearly died 4 times. She is a tenacious optimist and still won't give up. But she is dancing with a rare, particularly aggressive form of blood cancer called Multiple Myeloma (as she puts it, MM is not a very good dancer, and keeps stepping on her toes).

The last step in her treatment in Australia is a "hard reboot" of her blood system which she calls "walking alone through hellfire pass" (in complete isolation for a month). The crucible moment is "Hells Gate" in which she has her own cultivated stem cells transplanted back into her body so her own cells, now with a clean slate, can start producing her own beautiful blood again.

This should should occur sometime in the New Year, and her rapid response to current treatment say she has the moxie to get there.

She cannot go back to work while treatment continues (and for some undefined time after that), so her plan to work hard and save up is no longer feasible.

Serendipitously, for her ongoing health, the doctors have ordered her to find a place to live that is rural, isolated, and low-stress... which describes Motueka Valley, her natural home, and the life this dance has put just out of reach!

In order for her to come home, she needs help.