We all need a safe space to go to when the going gets tough, and for Mary-Anne McAllum, it’s the Tui Ora Cancer Navigation Service.
Mary-Anne received her first cancer diagnosis in 2019, breast cancer, and was successfully treated. In 2021, it was found in her other breast and was, again, successfully treated. Then it turned up in her bones, and now she is living with a Stage 4 cancer diagnosis.
“When I saw the specialist after they did a bone biopsy from my pelvis, she kept using the word ‘terminal’ and it was terrible,” she remembers.” I said, ‘Is it going to kill me?’ and she said ‘Yes’. I was hollow inside.
“Then I saw the oncologist two weeks later and she told me it was incurable but treatable. Which gave me a funny sort of relief because now I wasn’t looking for a prescribed time limit. I was the same as everyone else in that I didn’t know when my time would come.”
A celebrant from Stratford, Mary-Anne was very open about her diagnosis with friends and family, but that brought its own challenges.
“People don’t know how to respond; you see the panic in their eyes because they don’t know what to say. They say things like ‘sing out if I can help’, knowing that you won’t. And if you do try to talk, you get people trying to reassure you or provide solutions for you and that’s not what you need.
“What you need is someone like Toni-Ann.”
Registered nurse Toni-Ann Beekmans and Kaiārahi Donna Akariri support those on a cancer journey across the Taranaki rohe. They help whānau understand the medical terminology and what treatment options are open to them, provide access to other services if required, and ensure that people feel like they are in control of the rollercoaster they are on as much as possible.
But most of all they provide a safe space to talk.
“You can let it all out with them. They don’t have any difficulty about talking about it, any of it. And you know they are genuine. The moment you meet Toni-Ann, you know she is all heart,” Mary-Anne says.
“They are health professionals that care. I always feel a sense of a relief after seeing them, because I can just talk – I don’t have to worry about how they feel about what I need to say like I would with my husband, or son, or friends. They create a safe space for me and me alone, and it’s wonderful.”
Taking a hauora approach to the cancer journey means that the service looks beyond just treating the cancer itself and helps people to identify what other support they need for themselves and their whanau.
“I was very grateful to be able to experience rongoā (Māori healing), which helped immensely. And I know the door is open for my husband, Neil, and any other member of my family to access support if they want to.”
“I am not Māori but experiencing the kaupapa and sense of whānau caring for whānau that Toni-Ann and Donna bring with them every time they visit has been amazing. I feel safe and when you are dealing with something as challenging as cancer, that’s a good place to be.”