Help me give women facing stage 4 cancer the space to breathe

My story

Three years ago, I was handed a diagnosis that changed everything. Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. I'm 35, a mum of three, and in one moment, the life I thought I was living shifted completely.

After a lot of time processing a feeling, not many people around me understand. I started to notice something I hadn't fully seen before: so many women are carrying far more than they show. Mothers, caregivers, daughters, friends, women everywhere, running on empty, quietly holding everything together while quietly falling apart. Women who haven't given themselves permission to stop and breathe in years.

I want to create a retreat, a real, unhurried, restorative weekend, where women battling stage 4 cancer can pause. Where they can be genuinely pampered, nourished, and gently reminded that they are worthy of relaxation. A space that feels less like an event and more like permission.

What the retreat will be:

Exhale will be an intimate 3-day, 2-night retreat for around 10 women living with stage 4 cancer, held later this year somewhere beautiful in New Zealand.

Across the three days, there will be:

- Nourishing, fully catered meals, food you didn't have to cook or think about

- Gentle workshops, activities and moments of fun

- Slow mornings and genuine, unscheduled quiet time

- Meaningful conversation and a real sense of community

- A warm, beautiful space that feels like somewhere you belong