Jane is a 58 year old Pakeha woman and a much loved mum to her two adult children, in their late 20s. In March 2020, she started to get stomach pain, was treated for a range of possible problems including …

The human body is amazing. It bounces back after gruelling punishment – 2 complex surgeries and 3 months of chemo in a 12 month period – looking at me, you wouldn’t guess. People matter more than anything in the world – family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, the LGSOC support group; everyone helped us stay afloat.

I’m an animal lover and spend much of my free time volunteering at animal shelters both here in NZ and overseas. I love to travel and believe that friendship and family are the most important things in life. I’m a girlfriend, a sister, a daughter and an aunty and one day I hope to run a hectic household filled with children and chaos…

My appendix bursting turned out to be lucky for me. I had my first son in 2003. What followed was years of sadness and disappointment as we tried to add to our family. We had three miscarriages and then after …

I saw my GP repeatedly and they always had a good explanation, a reason why my worsening symptoms were harmless and didn’t require investigation. I was told I was too young for cancer. I self tested myself with a pharmacy screening test for bowel cancer, it was negative. I googled my symptoms and nothing …