Sarah and Brett Morrison are staying positive as cancer wages war inside her body.
It's impossible to comprehend the cancer raging through the body of the beautiful young woman making me coffee.
Sarah Morrison and her husband Brett's Papamoa home is bathed in light, cosy and inviting on a sunny February morning. The beachy fresh flavour feels relaxed and calm - the perfect place for a young couple making a fresh start in Sarah's home town.
The bubbly 32-year-old has long hair, bright eyes and beautifully manicured red and gold nails. She is wearing a mauve top - accented with lace - gorgeous summer sandals and a set of neon bracelets, each with one sparkling bead of diamantes.
Everything about the petite massage therapist is shattering the cancer patient cliche.
View below to see how you can help.
She has hair, although not as thick and long as it used to be, a warm complexion, and a wide white smile that is present more often than hidden.
Inside though, bowel cancer is waging war.
Sarah and Brett moved to their Papamoa home in March 2013, having spent a few years working in Auckland.
"We were here every weekend anyway," says Brett.
Sarah got a job as a massage therapist at Black Champagne Salon & Spa while Brett is a contractor at concrete firm Gascott Contractors.
Their nine-year love story began in 2006, when they were both living in the Bay. Brett saw his future wife using an ATM in Greerton. He and a workmate were driving past when she caught his eye - he almost ran over a pedestrian looking in the rear-view mirror.
He made a bet with his colleague that he could get her number and sidling up next to her car at the traffic lights he wound down the window and asked her. Unsure why, she agreed.
Making his best effort to win her heart Brett then cooked Sarah three meals - the only three in his culinary repertoire. If it didn't work after those three meals, he was out of options.
"Now that he has got me, he doesn't really cook anymore," Sarah says.
The couple married on the Main Mount Beach in April nearly four years ago, holding the reception at the surf club.
During their time in Auckland, Sarah worked for Mobile Massage Company Corporate providing massage therapy to the Black Caps, Under-20 All Blacks, and the Kangaroos during the four nations.
She was also hired to massage Lady Gaga but the star ran out of time pre-concert. Sarah still went backstage, massaging the dancers and producer, and was introduced to Lady Gaga.
Her experience back in Auckland had also helped land her a role working with the Bay of Plenty Steamers rugby team shortly before her diagnosis.
ONCE back in Tauranga Sarah could spend more time riding her horse, which she still keeps as a pet, while Brett made the most of having the surf beach on his doorstep.
Life was great - until March last year when Sarah began to feel inexplicably shaky, anxious, tired and started vomiting.
She went to her GP and was diagnosed with anxiety and hyperventilation syndrome, but the medication did nothing to ease the symptoms and the vomiting escalated to four or five times a day.
I got out the door and I was just bawling my eyes out. Then I was like, 'no, I've got to pick myself up, I've got a plan of attack
A doctor at the emergency department suspected it might be a gallbladder infection but the fit, otherwise healthy 31-year-old hardly had the risk factors and she wasn't in pain.
"I had no symptoms [of bowel cancer] - no pain or cramps," she said. She also had no family history. "I've never smoked, always looked after myself, don't really drink. Even now, some days I think it's a bad dream still."
In July, on her 32nd birthday, she was sent for a CT scan at Grace Hospital.
The results were life-changing.
She had cancer in her liver and lymph nodes with a strong possibility her bowel was the primary source. "Even the doctors were shocked," she said.
A colonoscopy revealed advanced bowel cancer and the couple left for Auckland to begin the first of four cycles of chemotherapy.
Sarah was also due to start the unfunded drug, Avastin, but was unable to after developing a blood clot in her leg.
Her first scan showed the cancer in her liver had grown so they changed her chemotherapy and began Avastin because the clot had cleared.
After four rounds of the new chemo a third scan on December 8 brought good news.
"Things were stopping and starting to shrink," she says.
Convinced her condition was continuing to improve, Sarah was positive heading into another scan last week.
But the results were devastating.
The aggressive cancer has spread to her lungs and the lymph nodes in her back. Chemotherapy is no longer an option.
"I thought things were going good so it was just a huge shock to everybody. It just got to me. I got out the door and I was just bawling my eyes out. Then I was like, 'no, I've got to pick myself up, I've got a plan of attack'."
It's a week after this news when this much-loved wife, daughter, sister and friend is taking a break from planning her next move to make me a coffee and have a chat.
Sitting around feeling sorry for herself is only going to make her feel worse, she said.
"I've just always been a positive person. I just want to keep things as normal as possible."
The next drug option, Cetuximab, will cost thousands - they suspect somewhere between $2000 and $9000 per treatment - but they will find out more when they meet with Sarah's oncologist in Auckland again on February 17.
It is successful in 20 per cent of cancer cases.
However, only 40 per cent of cancer patients, including Sarah, are able to receive Cetuximab and she is doing everything in her power to be in the best health when treatment begins.
She is eating a strict wholefood diet, including lots of fresh shakes, and isn't drinking alcohol or coffee.
She has become accustomed to studying food labels at the supermarket - looking for alkaline foods - and is feeling the financial pinch of eating organic.
Sulking never cured anybody. It's just a waste of time and we don't have time to waste.
His wife's unexpected diagnosis drew Brett to the plight of another family in need - those of missing 5-year-old Jack Dixon who was swept off the Mount beach by a rouge wave.
Lying awake at night he hatched a plan to organise a surfers' paddle-out for Jack.
Unsure if his idea was a good one, he ran it past a few mates and soon had a small group to join him. Interest in the event swelled and on the day 280 to 300 surfers showed up and 1000 people stood on the shore.
"It kept me occupied. It felt really good," he said.
In part the paddle-out was for him, he said. "It was my way of accepting Sarah was sick, I guess."
His wife's positivity has rubbed off and once a pessimist he now considers himself an optimist.
"Sulking never cured anybody. It's just a waste of time and we don't have time to waste."
THE cancer diagnosis also came as a huge shock for Sarah's younger sister Jenna, 29, who travels to the Bay most weekends, and her parents, who live in Pyes Pa.
Her father is growing an ever-expanding vegetable garden to provide fresh produce for his daughter.
"It's a shock for everybody. It's hard and they just want to do whatever they can," Sarah says.
Judy Hartstone has known Sarah since they were 12-year-olds at pony club and described her friend as the "kindest most giving person you could meet".
She is organising Ride Out for Sarah, a horse trek across the neighbouring farms at her Poripori Rd property.
"It was something that I could do to help. It's something that's dear to her," she said.
Judy has organised a quiet horse for Sarah to ride in the trek and will have her husband follow the group on a quad bike in case she gets tired.
I've never smoked, always looked after myself, don't really drink. Even now, some days I think it's a bad dream still.
"The amount of support she's received just shows how much she's put out there. Everyone just wants to help her now."
Tauranga woman Kelly Mitchinson, who is undergoing radiotherapy for breast cancer, met Sarah at Pink Yoga last October. "I've only known her for a short time but she's certainly an amazing and beautiful person. She has been very inspirational for me on my own cancer journey as well."
The "restorative yoga class" brings together women at all points on the cancer journey. "Because we've all walked a similar path we kind of compare notes, so to speak," Mitchinson told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.
Sarah's cancer battle had changed Mitchinson's own outlook. "It puts everything into perspective and it just makes you realise how precious life is and that really most people have nothing to worry about when you've got somebody with a diagnosis like Sarah has.
"Her diagnosis is a lot more severe than my own and she's just so positive, just a real fighter, she seems to just take it so well. I've never heard one negative thing come out of her mouth. She's just very positive, very awe-inspiring."
How can I help?
- Ride Out for Sarah
Take part in a 2.5 to 3-hour horse trek in the Lower Kaimais;
Saturday, February 21 at 10am (prompt);
$20 minimum donation for adults, under 16 $10;
There will be a $2 sausage sizzle following the trek. Starting point 598 Poripori Rd. Text 027 6329396 or email judyhill-r@hotmail.com to register.
- Karma Keg for Sarah
Buy a beer - for whatever price you are willing to pay - and all proceeds go to Sarah's treatment fund.
Mount Brewing Co. Maunganui Rd.
Sunday, February 22 at 2pm.
-GiveaLittle Page
Search Sarah Morrison at www.givealittle.co.nz to make an online donation.
Anyone who emails agentcoe@gmail.com with proof of their donation (minimum of $10) to the Givealittle page is in to win a prize pack valued at more than $1800.
The prize includes a $1000 wardrobe from Augustine by Kelly Coe, a $310 three-day cleanse from Nomad Nutrition, a Shine like a Diamond art print from Maiko Nagao, a $113 bracelet set from Lindi Kingi, a $130 Ashley & Co Gift Basket from Paper Plane Store, a $150 shoe voucher from Chaos & Harmony, two throw cushions from Bonnie & Flynn and a $45 Heilala Vanilla Culinary Essentials Gift Tin.
More information can also be viewed via the Augustine Facebook page.
Symptoms of bowel cancer
- Bleeding from the bottom or seeing blood in the toilet after a bowel motion;
- Change of bowel motions over several weeks without returning to normal;
- Persistent or periodic severe pain in the abdomen;
- A lump or mass in the abdomen;
- Tiredness and loss of weight for no particular reason;
- Anaemia.
By the numbers
- New Zealand has one of the highest bowel cancer rates in the world.
- Bowel cancer is the second-highest cause of cancer death in New Zealand.
- More than 2800 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year and more than 1200 die from the disease.
- By 2016 the number of new cases of bowel cancer diagnosed each year is projected to increase by 15 per cent for men and 19 per cent for women to 3302 (for all ages).
- Ministry of Health
What is bowel cancer?
Bowel cancer is a malignant growth that develops inside the bowel.
The growth occurs when normal cells on the inside wall of the bowel become abnormal and grow out of control. The cells can turn into a polyp, which may then turn into bowel cancer over a number of years. Only about 5 per cent of polyps develop into cancer but all but the smallest polyps should be removed to ensure they don't turn into cancer.
It can take a long time before the cancer grows and spreads to other parts of the body.
Most bowel cancers are in the large bowel, which is made up of the colon and the rectum. Occasionally the cancer is in the small bowel (small intestine).
- Ministry of Health
He had nine surgeries: 'There was nothing left - no bones or anything left in my foot.'