Two-and-a-half years ago, Nikki and Vincent Williams and their two boys Matthew and Alexander, were your typical New Zealand family.
Matthew, who is on the Autism spectrum, was beginning school and, after years of renting, the couple had finally managed to lay down a deposit and purchase their first family home.
Family life was bustling and busy, but what happened next would stop them in their tracks.
At only 37 years old, Mrs Williams was diagnosed with terminal stage IV colorectal cancer and told she had six months to live.
"The C word had never entered my mind so it was a huge shock for me," she said. "When they told me that it wasn't just cancer, but advanced cancer and I must have had it for a long time, I couldn't believe it."