Tauranga man delays cancer treatment so his partner can have cancer treatment

Tauranga couple Wayne "Coley" Cole and Lisa Collinson both have cancer. Photo / Supplied.

Wayne "Coley" Cole has put his planned chemotherapy on hold while his partner is treated for advanced bowel cancer.

Cole, 64, was about to start chemotherapy for a form of chronic leukaemia when Lisa Collinson, 43, also received a diagnosis of cancer.

Collinson sought medical help in December when longstanding irritable bowel problems flared up into bloating that wouldn't go away.

She went to doctors two or three times and attended Tauranga Hospital three times before cancer was diagnosed.

Surgery removed two-thirds of her large intestine and she began chemotherapy. However, cancer cells had spread to her liver and her peritoneum, the tissue lining the abdomen.

Next month Collinson will travel to Auckland to be treated with the anti-cancer drug Avastin. It is not state-funded nor covered by her health insurance, so a crowd-funding page has been set up to appeal for help raising the $18,000 needed for the first cycle of the medicine.

Collinson's doctors have told her that her illness is incurable but she draws strength from the cases of people who have survived a terminal cancer diagnosis.

"You never give up."

Formerly a caregiver for a brain-injured girl, Collinson had to stop working because of her illness.

Cole, a crane operator, had his cancer diagnosed around eight years ago. It makes him susceptible to infections and last March, he went down with pneumonia caused by legionella and another bacterium.

"He had 25 per cent capacity left in his lung. He was in the ICU [intensive care unit] at Tauranga Hospital and they said he wouldn't make it but he actually recovered."

"I've been focused on him for the last eight years, investigating therapies and foods, trying to keep him well."

"We decided we couldn't afford to have two people on chemo in the house and not know how we would go or what would happen. I don't get any income because he has an income. We couldn't live on what they offer you on the benefit so he has had to continue working.

"We are still trying to manage him for as long as we can to keep him well."

• Donations can be made at the couple's givealittle page.