Cancer patient Tracy Barr-Smith, pictured in 2020, overjoyed but cautious at news Pharmac would fund Ibrance. Photo / File
Bay of Plenty Times is looking back at the stories of 2023. Here’s what made headlines in April
April 1
Malcolm Stanford was living in a friend’s garage.
His bed was in one corner, while a TV, fridge and microwave sat just inside the door. It was noisy, and the temperature fluctuated from scorching to freezing.
“I never imagined I’d end up like this,” he told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.
The garage was home because he could not get a rental. The former timber mill worker had found it hard to get a job with no car or fixed address.
He was among a growing number of people struggling to get a foothold in Tauranga’s fiercely competitive rental market.
April 3
Jessie McKay could pursue her dream as a flight attendant much more easily after the drug Trikafta became publicly available in New Zealand on Saturday.
The 21-year-old Tauranga woman said she was looking forward to moving to Auckland, starting a new career and travelling to new cities.
“I can do this without having to worry about getting sick,” she told the Bay of Plenty Times.
McKay had cystic fibrosis – an ultimately terminal condition that produced thick and sticky mucous and mainly affected a person’s lungs and digestive system.
Trikafta treated its underlying cause, but at $330,000 per year, the drug had been out of reach for many families as it had previously not been publicly funded in New Zealand.
April 10
The Chinese Women’s Sevens rugby team used Rotorua and Tauranga as their base for their bid to make it into the Olympics.
A contingent of 25 players and 10 coaches and managers – including three former Bay of Plenty Steamers staff – were building towards their dream of qualifying for the big event in Paris in 2024.
Their decision to be based in the Bay of Plenty had pumped big money into the region’s economy and helped put it on the map as a world-class sporting destination.
April 13
A mum and three kids took shelter in a hallway as a “violent” tornado barrelled past their home toppling trees and poles, and causing “significant” damage to a Bay of Plenty kiwifruit orchard.
It was another in a series of tornados reported in New Zealand in recent days.
Shelley Edmiston and Marc Jenkins’ family of six lived on an orchard on Pukakura Rd in Katikati, near Tauranga.
Edmiston and the girls – aged 16, 13 and 13 – were home while a 9-year-old boy was out with his father when the tornado hit before 5pm Tuesday.
Edmiston said thunderstorms and heavy rain rolled through before the tornado arrived “out of the blue”.
They heard it first – a “loud and violent” noise.
They looked out the lounge ranch slider and saw “debris flying everywhere” as a tornado tore through the kiwifruit orchard, taking out tall trees and orchard poles as it neared their yard.
“I saw furniture and things flying past.”
April 19
The final bridge in a $262 million highway project six years and more than 1.3 million staff hours in the making was about to be used by motorists for the first time.
The Bayfair flyover on State Highway 2 in Mount Maunganui was set to open in April, with work on the wider Bay Link - one of the Bay of Plenty’s largest roading projects, used by 38,000 vehicles a day - to finish by the end of the year.
Resident and business organisations are pleased to see the project reach this stage “at last”, but did not expect it to be a “silver bullet” for congestion on the fast-growing city’s roading network.
The flyover was one of the last significant pieces of infrastructure to be opened as part of the Baypark to Bayfair project, also known as Bay Link or B2B, which had built flyovers bypassing two busy roundabouts.
April 20
Tracy Barr-Smith was a vivacious advocate for people living with cancer. She fought not only her personal battle with terminal Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, but also New Zealand’s funding system to improve access to drugs and treatments.
She died in April, aged 52, while exploring Australia with her husband Dean Barr-Smith after exhausting all treatment options.
Tracy was part of the Metavivors New Zealand advocacy group and cancer support group Sweet Louise.
Despite her terminal diagnosis, she marched on Parliament, presented to the health select committee, led petitions and shared her personal story in an effort to increase funding for the life-prolonging drug Ibrance.
In March 2020, Pharmac confirmed it would fund Ibrance. The treatment, also known as palbociclib, can slow the progression of breast cancer and relieve symptoms.
April 22
Ongoing disruptions from roadworks on one of the city’s main arterial routes were having a “devastating” impact on businesses, owners said.
One Tauranga business owner said they have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in income as a result of the disruptions, while another said their takings were down 70 to 80 per cent.
It comes after retailers complained in December that the controversial roading project was “killing” businesses in the area.
The council said it was aware of the issues the works were creating and was working to get the jobs completed.
The work was being carried out to make the road safer and provide more ways to travel, with changes including a part-time, peak-hour bus lane, and a two-way cycleway.
With their lives shattered in the event, the family can now rebuild after the settlement.