Helena McAlpine with her partner Chris Barton. Photo / Natalie Slade
Helena leaped into my life like the fireworks she wants to leave with.
This New Year's Eve when we send her into heaven above the skies of Gisborne I will remember a woman with no equal, a beautifully charismatic woman who changed so many lives for the better, and who leaves me with an amazing dress up box of memories, experiences and wonderful friends.
She also leaves me the rarest of gifts - falling in love and being loved like never before.
Helena was either fearless or reckless - probably both - and despite having terminal cancer when we met, she threw the safety instructions out the window and continued to channel all her glorious energy into the things she loved: helping women fight breast cancer, finding as many opportunities as possible to laugh with her friends, and somehow finding time to create magic every day.
I know that Helena would want to leave a legacy for others to remember.
It is one of the simplest ideas. Choose happiness.
Be grateful. Smack it in the bum every day and love life. Laugh.
Sing the loudest you can at every opportunity. Laugh again.
It's never the wrong time to invite your friends over for a party.
It's sometimes the ordinary enjoyment of the day, or rhythm that you share with one another that means the most.
Please continue to support the Breast Cancer Foundation in the extraordinary work they do on behalf of all New Zealand women. Be breast aware, check your breasts.
The Australian site cited a 'heightened threat level' as the issue.