Wife's art of living inspires new breast cancer charity

Scott Perkins is accustomed to the limelight, but he doesn't want this story to be about him.

Nor does he want it to be all about his wife, Louise, although she is the inspiration for Sweet Louise, The Louise Perkins Foundation.

"I don't want too much about the Scott and Louise story," Mr Perkins says as he sits in the Union Fish building in Quay Street, which has been transformed into an art gallery.

In front of him the afternoon light gleams on a striking resin and aluminium piece by New Zealand artist Stephen Bambury.

However, there is no getting around the fact that if it wasn't for his wife's determination to enjoy her life despite having breast cancer, Mr Perkins would not be surrounded today by an impressive collection of 55 artworks.

There's a 1964 Colin McCahon painting, Waterfall, a Dick Frizzell painting called Saw Mill (After Tibor Gergely) and an image by New York photographer James Casebere.

All were donated and will be auctioned online next Friday, to begin the foundation's mission to enrich the lives of women with breast cancer.

Mrs Perkins, an avid art collector, died in December aged 39, 12 years after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She defied medical predictions by living so long and so well. Her husband credits that to good medical care and her positive attitude.

"Both medically and personally she was a very extraordinary person," says Mr Perkins, the head of Deutsche Bank New Zealand.

"It's very hard to maintain a sense of quality of life and positivity when you're faced with such a dramatic course of events," he says.

Within days of Mrs Perkins' death, her friends approached Mr Perkins with the idea for the foundation.

"There was so much about her life and her energy that people thought could be shared for the benefit of others," he says.

Mr Perkins found that while child cancer sufferers had access to organisations that "lift them out and take them to another place" - by taking them to Disneyland, for example - there was nothing similar for middle-aged women with cancer.

The foundation will begin its work in Auckland, by offering patients with metastatic disease help such as home cleaning and childcare and comforts such as massage and pampering.

That will eventually be extended geographically and to all breast cancer patients.

"The reality of breast cancer is that it completely disrupts your life. And we want to cushion that disruption," Mr Perkins says.

He is adamant that while the foundation is named after his wife, it is not about her.

"Louise inspired this but it's not about Louise. And I know that she would feel strongly that what this achieves for women with breast cancer three years down the track will be the true mark of its success."