An online fundraising campaign for chef Green Kambukoll will support him to receive palliative care and chemotherapy in his final weeks. Photo / Supplied
An online fundraising campaign for chef Green Kambukoll will support him to receive palliative care and chemotherapy in his final weeks. Photo / Supplied
Following the discovery of an aggressive and terminal cancer, the “beautiful person” behind the menu at Mangōnui’s The Thai restaurant has recently returned home to Thailand to spend his final weeks with family.
Green Kambukoll, 54, made the brave decision — despite his ineligibility for public medical care — to return to his small village about 2.5 hours’ drive from the outskirts of Bangkok.
Kambukoll was The Thai’s head chef since a change of ownership in 2018, and has been described by the restaurant’s founder Roz Harley, with whom he worked from 2007, as a “kind, quiet, lovely, gentle and beautiful person”.
Because Kambukoll has worked and paid taxes to the New Zealand Government for the past 15 years, he must now rely on private medical care in Thailand, at a cost.
As a result, a Givealittle campaign has been set up by The Thai’s present owners, Emily and Tony Conaglen, to help fund his treatment in Thailand, to support his wife, who quit her job to care for him, and potentially repay a $30,000 debt he incurred in his quest to become a New Zealand citizen.
Tony Conaglen said upon learning of Kambukoll’s limited time and wish to be with whānau, he and Emily had moved quickly to organise a one-way ticket for him to Thailand.
“We rushed to get him back, booking with a few days’ notice. He was getting panicky about how much time he had left,” Conaglen said.
Conaglen said a farewell lunch attended by a close group of co-workers and friends — his Far North family — had seen him off with just under $2000.
The couple have also sent Kambukoll about $1100 since his arrival that they said had been enough to fund his palliative care and chemotherapy so far.
“He has enough to get that hospital care in the meantime. And I’ve promised him more.”
Conaglen said they would continue to support him until funds raised were delivered to his local bank account.
A close group of co-workers and friends recently farewelled Kambukoll, who employers past and present described as "part of their families". Photo / Supplied
Harley, who had hired Kambukoll directly from Thailand in order to open the restaurant, said she couldn’t recall him taking a single sick day during the decade they worked together.
She said she had sold the restaurant to the Conaglens about a year after the death of her own husband.
“After my husband died, he [Kambukoll] would always come and give me a quiet little hug. He was that sort of person,” Harley said.
“My whole family — I have two daughters and four grandkids — we just can’t believe he won’t be there any more.”
Conaglen described him in similar terms.
“He’s part of our family. Two of our kids grew up working at the restaurant with him.”
Conaglen said Kambukoll’s cancer was initially believed to be operable, but it was during surgery they realised how far it had spread.
“Originally, the prognosis looked good, they thought they could operate and remove a tumour in his stomach,” Conaglen said.
“But they found it was aggressive and had already spread to his pancreas and exploded into hundreds of dots of cancer in his peritoneum, the lining of his stomach.
“He got a hell of a shock. It shocked everyone.”
Kambukoll helped set up The Thai restaurant in late 2007, and has been a loyal and hard-working chef since. He's been told he will succumb to cancer in weeks, or perhaps months at most.
Conaglen attributed the restaurant’s success to Kambukoll’s exceptional take on traditional Thai dishes, and to his loyalty.
“He was one of the original chefs at the restaurant, and the only one who didn’t leave upon gaining residency,” he said.
“We made him the head chef and made his take on the dishes the standard, to which all the other chefs had to cook.
