The Great NZ Road Trip: Blenheim to Kaikōura.
Video / NZ Herald
Few people know Rānui House as intimately as Josh Komen.
For 474 nights he called it home – which sounds lovely, but Rānui House – in Christchurch, is for patients and their whānau while they are undergoing lifesaving treatment for cancer, accidents and life-threatening illnesses.
“It’s a place where you don’t want to stay. But when you stay there, you don’t want to leave because it becomes your lifeline between you and the hospital,” says Komen.
At 23 years of age, he wasn’t just a fit young West Coaster – he was a powerful athlete on his way to becoming a Commonwealth Games 800-metre runner. That discipline is arguably the hardest track event in athletics. It takes a certain type of stubborn personality to excel in a simultaneous test of speed and endurance. But his toughest test was still ahead of him.
“I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. And for me, I went straight to the hospital,” says Komen.
Josh’s mum came to stay at Rānui House and after about six weeks of hospital-based treatment, Komen did too. While his body was battling cancer, his head was in its own fight.
Josh Komen was a strong athlete before cancer changed the course of his career. Photo / Supplied
“When your identity gets thrown away as a fast, healthy runner ... When that gets taken away, stripped away down to your fragile self, seeing yourself like an alien, it does things to the mind and it started to play tricks on me,” says Komen.
Rānui means “big warm house”, which was just what Komen needed during the darkest time in his life.
“A sanctuary, a safe place. A haven. A place that I could just rest my head,” he says.
Since then, Komen’s life has taken many turns.
“Two diagnoses of cancer, allogeneic stem cell transplant and that graft versus host disease – graft rejection, and treatment in Melbourne for five years,” says Komen as the complex description rolls off his tongue like a fish and chip order.
Josh Komen during one of his many treatments.
But the worst moments in his life led him to two of his best, starting with a flight to Australia for more treatment.
“I found a beautiful lady on a plane flying to Melbourne, sat next to her, got into a conversation. She came and saw my treatment and now we’re married with a beautiful daughter,” says Komen with the smile of a man who knows what happiness is.
In the midst of his darkest time, Josh Komen also found the light, building a beautiful family along the way.
“Life could not be better in terms of what I have right now,” say Komen.
He is now a Rānui House Ambassador, a fundraiser and a passionate advocate for the accommodation provided by the Bone Marrow Cancer Trust.
“It’s become my family and I look after my family. I’m just doing what I can to give back to a place that’s given to me and so many other New Zealanders. And, unfortunately, and as sad as it is, more people are coming to Rānui.”
Rānui House in Christchurch. Photo / Rānui House
The numbers back him up.
“This year from the start of January to the end of October, 936 people had to be turned away because of max capacity,” says Komen.
The answer is Rānui Apartments – which opened this week to families like his, who need a big warm house to brighten up their darkest time.
“It’s got 43 new apartments. So the families can stay there, the patients can get the treatment, they’ve got that family support. So that’s a total of 69 apartments in total from Rānui House to now Rānui Apartments, it’s massive,” says Komen.
A total of 18 patients were accommodated at Rānui Apartments on night one – and he was there to meet them.
“People from Blenheim, people from the West Coast, down south. They’re just so grateful to have this place to stay,” says Komen.
Over the last 30 years, Rānui House has provided more than 150,000 bed nights, but it’s more than a bed, he says – it’s community.
The Great New Zealand Road Trip continues.
“This warm, comfortable, quiet place creates connections. And those connections create encouragement - and encouragement is empowerment,” says Komen.
