Help support Helen and her family through cancer treatment
Raising funds for Helen and her family, to help them cope and ease the financial pressure while Helen goes through cancer treatment.
Island Bay, Wellington
This is my beautiful friend, Helen Williamson.
She is a deeply kind and caring human, 43yo, works to supports children who for a variety of reasons are not able to attend mainstream education, animal lover, dog whisperer, amazing artist specialising in painting, photography and portraiture, wife to her sweetheart David, and Mother to 2 beautiful girls: Lily (7) and Leyla (13).
As a family, they've been on a health journey for a long time Helen's eldest daughter, Leyla was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was a baby. Very recently, Leyla has been able to start a new medication that has transformed her Life for the better. This was an amazing and miraculous outcome.
However, the good times didn't last long as Helen was recently diagnosed with bowel cancer. This came as a big shock to her and her family. She's currently going through chemo and will also probably need to undergo surgery followed by radiotherapy, and continued chemo.
Helen's treatment leaves her feeling extremely unwell and unable to work, which is leading to increased financial pressures on a family already coping with such a challenging time. I want Helen to be able to focus on her healing and recovery without the burden about worrying about her lost income.
I'd be so grateful if you could consider donating to help this lovely family, and ease the financial pressure on my beloved friend as she goes through this difficult time.
Katherine Wyeth's involvement (page creator)
Helen is one of my dearest friends. We met when our eldest daughters were babies, and our children are now best friends too :) x
Use of funds
Essential expenses: rent, food, bills and transport
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Latest update
Post surgery update 13 August 2025
Kia ora whanau,
I'm very pleased to let everyone know that Helen's surgery went well last week. The surgeon said there were "no surprises" during the surgery - in which a section of her colon was removed. She spent 4 nights in hospital post-surgery and she is now relieved to be recovering at home. The removed mass has been sent for screening and we are of course hugely hoping that the tests will confirm there is no residual cancer left in Helen's body! We will know as early as Friday if this is the case.
Assuming it is, Helen will go onto an intensive monitoring phase - with screening every 3 months to ensure the cancer does not resurface.
Helen will now spend the next 6 - 12 weeks in recovery - working on regaining her strength. She is hoping to go back to work in as little as 6 weeks all going well.
Thank you all so so much for your kindness and support. It has been a very challenging year for Helen and her family but the love and support of her community has meant so much.
This Givealittle campaign will finish in 3 days: on Saturday 16th August, so there's still time for any final donations! I'll post a final update on Friday - hopefully we will have the scan results by then. Feel free to reach out to me personally going forward if you would like to be kept abreast of Helen's progress etc.
With Love and Gratitude
Katherine xxx
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