When Christchurch mum Naomi Argyle was given just weeks to live, she thought she was being pranked.
“Where’s the cameras, you’re playing a prank on me.”
Argyle, 45, went to her GP in early March after suffering intermittent stomach aches. Tests later confirmed the very worst.
Stage 4 cancer - thought to have started in her colon - has spread to her liver, chest and lymph nodes.
“I actually thought that moment in my life would be like one of those earthquake moments or the hearing of the Princess Diana passing but to be fair, it’s such a blur. I still don’t think I’ve actually heard the words properly but it was just absolutely devastating.”
Upon hearing the news, Argyle said her first thought were her children.
“I’m leaving my babies. Leaving my family and just how am I going to leave my babies?”
She wonders how her future will play out, and whether her passing will be more painful than what she’s going through right now.
“What are my kids going to see and remember?
“They’re spending a lot of time with my ex, which is fantastic, but yeah, we try not to force them to come to the hospital. Because no one likes going to the hospital at the best of time, let alone when your mother’s lying there sick.”
From what she can see, they are being brave.
“I worry, as you would, about how it’s going to unfold for them and what they will see.”
Her message to others is to get checked if they think something is wrong, and get a second opinion if needed.
“Keep pushing, and its gotta changed. It was too late when I found out. There’s no repair for me.”
The father of Argyle’s 11 and 13-year-old daughters has set up a Givealittle page to help his family.
“We have two amazing daughters who are about to have their worlds ripped apart,” Scott Ashworth said on the page.
“This is the most heartbreaking thing I could ever imagine having to do but I have no other options.
“I’m writing this to try and generate as much support as possible so she can have some quality in the time she has left.
“She is unable to work therefore money is very, very tight.
“I want her to be able to do as much as possible and create some forever memories with our girls and to make her time left as happy as she can possibly be.”
Since Ashworth started the page more than 200 people have donated, bringing donations to $15,500.
Argyle said she felt “so overwhelmed”, grateful and humbled by the support she has received.
“There’s complete strangers donating money that I’ve never even met in my life, and I’ll probably never meet.”
She is currently in Christchurch Hospital but hopes to return home this week.
A relative told the Herald her focus was on “relieving the stress on the kids’ dad.
“And hoping to replace the income of the next few years that she won’t be earning now to allow them a normal schooling - to be able to do school trips, etc.
“Her prognosis is not great but her spirits are as high as she can manage.”
He said Argyle’s other aim was to raise awareness about people so young getting this “viciously aggressive disease”.
Argyle believed testing should be more widely available for people under 50.
Click here to visit the Givealittle page for Naomi Argyle and her family.
A second teen is missing in the Upper Hutt area, police say.