While Daffodil Day has been cancelled due to Covid Leanne Warr urges people to give what they can to the Cancer Society. Photo / Warren Buckland
We've all seen the ad on television where a girl stands on the street, daffodils in hand, asking people to donate.
Most shake their heads and walk on by.
It makes me wonder how many of those people have been affected either directly, or indirectly.
The message is one I think we all need to take on board.
That cancer can strike anyone and we can't turn a blind eye to it.
I was one of those who thought it could never happen to me.
It did. Not actually physically to me, but indirectly.
As the date for the annual appeal approaches, I'm reminded that on that day it will be just under two weeks to the anniversary of my father's death from cancer.
My father and I had our issues.
But what he went through is something that, no matter how I felt about him, even for years afterwards, I would never wish on my worst enemy.
I've long since accepted his death, but I don't think I'll ever get over what we all went through.
I've lost a family friend to cancer since then.
Two, actually. No, amend that.
I've lost four people, other than my dad, to cancer.
Two were family friends we'd known for more than 40 years.
Another was the mother of a former flatmate.
The fourth was a flatmate.
When Dad was diagnosed, all I can remember is seeing the panic in my parent's faces.
Cancer had never happened to us before. That I knew of.
They didn't know how to deal with this.
My father was scared.
Trust me, it is one of the worst things you can deal with to watch a parent so utterly terrified of what he was about to face.
I remember when Dad was admitted for his surgery.
He had lost so much weight, his body looked like a sharpei, with those rolls of loose skin.
It's one of those things people don't like to think too much about.
That cancer eats away at your body, sapping your energy, and taking whatever reserves you have so even the food you eat doesn't sustain you.
The tumour on his kidney was removed, but it didn't help.
He was discharged a few days after the surgery but back in hospital a short time later where he stayed for the remaining four weeks of his life.
By the time of his death, he'd lost a lot of his cognitive abilities, regressing to his youth, which was terrifying at the time.
That wasn't the worst part.
The worst was having to be told by a doctor, over the phone, that my father was within days of dying.
The cancer had spread so that it was in his bones, and his brain.
That was the Friday. He was gone by early Tuesday morning.
Just two and a half months after his diagnosis. September 8, 1998.
My mother did not take the news well.
I did what I now realise was the best thing I could have ever done.
I rang one of the volunteers from the Cancer Society.
She immediately came around and was there for my mum. She got her through it.
I will always be grateful for what that lady did that night.
Cancer is a horrible disease.
But thanks to research, more people have a better chance of surviving.
That's why organisations like the Cancer Society are so important.
Although Daffodil Day has been cancelled because of Covid, the Cancer Society is right.
Cancer doesn't stop for a pandemic.
So, as I mark 23 years since Dad died, I ask that people please give what they can to the Cancer Society.
The more we know about cancer, the better chance we have of not losing a parent, a sibling, a child, a grandchild, a grandparent, a friend.
DAFFODIL DAY: HOW TO SUPPORT
Daffodil Day appeal cancelled: 'Cancer doesn't stop, so we won't either'
Lockdown restrictions meant the annual Daffodil Day street appeal, which typically raises about $1 million for those affected by cancer, has had to be cancelled.
Cancer Society of New Zealand CEO Lucy Elwood said the demand on its services during lockdown increased, with Covid-19 adding to the anxiety of those going through cancer.
"The tag-line for our Daffodil Day campaign is 'Cancer doesn't stop, so we won't either'. We are truly living those words right now – cancer doesn't stop because of Covid-19."
She urged people to donate and fundraise online this Daffodil Day - August 27 - at daffodilday.org.nz
ANZ has also created a daffodil that accepts donations simply by scanning the QR code on it or by visiting anz.co.nz/donate
'Lots of people can’t even remember when it was this good.'