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Help Tawhai and whānau to achieve his bucket list!

  • Update 1st December 2025

      1 December 2025
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    Our latest PET scan has brought news we weren't expecting. Tawhais cancer has moved into his spine, ribs and he is having severe unexplainable pain. With the ineligibility for Dara, and the expectation of maybe only recieving help for a further 12 months we have now decided not to venture to Australia. Pomalidomide is not working as the progression of the Cancer in his spine has happened after starting on Pomalidomide. We have accepted that Australia is not for us. We do not want to move our family, for Tawhai to possibly not respond to further medication in a different country. Our focus now is to keep Tawhai comfortable and continue to spend meaningful time together. Money raised so far has been used towards this, we will be taking a family trip to Queenstown later in the month. I ( Lani, Tawhais wife ) have finished up at work to take care of him, so this will contribute to our everyday financial needs. This is not the outcome we were hoping for, but quality over quantity is our main goal now. We are tremendously grateful for every one that has helped us on this journey. Please continue to pray for us 🙏 ❤️

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  • Tahu News Interview

      28 October 2025

    Sharing our recent interview with Tahu News

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  • Another update

      28 October 2025
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    Tawhai has slowly being recovering after his recent radiation treatment. The overachiever award definitely goes to him! As only 1/100 people recieve internal burns and extreme inflammation after radiation which causes extreme pain. It has taken awhile to find the right combination of medication to remedy this, but I finally feel like we are on the better side of it now!

    We are in a bit of a limbo situation at the moment which is quite unsettling and a little disheartening all at once. As Tawhai is no longer able to recieve Dara in Australia we are now exploring the possible options for the next step.

    Whether this still means we relocate to Australia or stay here in NZ with the possibility of applying for compassionate process, we still dont know which is going to give the best outcome as Australia does have other treatment.

    The tricky part is finding what he is

    1- actually eligible for

    2- if medicare covers them

    3- What chance will these treatments actually give him

    4- Whether the longevity outweighs the time and hard times away from our family and support

    Its been a long time of very hard conversations, alongside the guilt he feels for having to uproot our lives. We continue to remind him our lives mean the most with him in it and we as his whānau will do whatever we can to live with him as long as possible!

    We are so grateful to all the generous people supporting us, but we still have a long ways to go!

    We are staying as positive as ever 💚💚💚💚💚

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  • One year of Daratumumab

      21 September 2025

    So many changes have happened so quickly, We are devastated in having to think about leaving our home, our community, my job, shifting our children and removing them from their sports teams, kapa haka groups etc... We are now fundraising to purchase Daratumumab here in NZ. We are uncertain how Tawhai would be traveling and if anything happened to him in another country it would be very tough. $120,000 would cover 1 year of Daratumumab and give us time to plan for the future.

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  • Update for Tawhai

      17 September 2025
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    Yesterday our radio interview aired on RNZ, and Tawhai was mentioned in Parliament. Slowly but surely we are starting to be heard

    Tawhais recent PET scan came with mixed emotions. The multiple myeloma has spread into both of his arms now, both femur bones, and in his pelvis and tailbone. It also showed an 8mm tumour in his right kidney, and 2 in his lungs.

    He will be heading to Christchurch hospital on the 25th of September for 5-7 days radiation treatment and further tests to decide how to proceed with treatment.

    Australia plans will need to be on hold until we find out what next steps we need to take.

    Tawhai is nearing the end of his first 28 day cycle of Pomalidomide and for the most part seems to be tolerating it without to many side effects which has been great to see. He still has severe pain in his right arm where lesions are restricting the blood flow, sleepless nights are very consistent.

    On a brighter note our children competed in our local Kapa Haka competition this week and both my Kapa Haka rōopu Te Kura Tuatahi O Pāroa and our eldest daughters rōopu Te Kura Tuarua O Māwhera won the Junior and Senior divisions. He managed to attend both performances over the duration of the day, and our children were so happy to have him watch! He also gifted 7 carved pounamu for some akonga to wear for the big show. It was beautiful to witness such an extraordinary experience for our children. We truly hope we can find a way to keep our children immersed in their culture

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  • New journey

      31 August 2025
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    Kia ora everyone, our latest hospital stint has provided some frustrating yet much needed information. Tawhai is now on Pomalidomide, the last drug available here in NZ. Although from the way his body handled lenolidomide and the myeloma still progressing through that treatment, his haemotologist could only projected that this drug may work for 6-12 months before another relapse. We now have no choice but to move to Australia as soon as possible. Obviously this is not what we expected to be using this putea for, but we have to get him to Australia to be able to recieve Dara as soon as possible. Moving our whole life again is very disheartening, especially because we have as of last year just bought our forever home we now have to leave. There are a mixture of emotions, up rooting our children again after growing so much in their schooling and life on the West Coast is heart breaking. But weve had a bit of a chat and the kids and I are all adamant that doing the right thing for Dad is the most important thing We will still continue to petition and push for this to become funded so we are able to return home as soon as we can.

    Thank you all so much for the incredible support, we now start the phase of transferring to Australia and beginning again ❤️

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