NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Young Auckland mother diagnosed with terminal brain cancer two years after beginning breast cancer fight

Benjamin Plummer
By Benjamin Plummer
Multimedia Journalist·NZ Herald·
28 Oct, 2024 07:11 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The labour weekend road toll remains at zero with less than 24 hours to go. The country still has a shortage of doctors. Far right US commentator Candace Owens hopes to tour NZ.
  • Young Auckland mother Kendal Buchanan has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer after battling breast cancer for two years.
  • Last week she was told she had two months to live, but her family fear she only has days.
  • Buchanan’s sister told the Herald she “really wanted to fight” for her two children – Ezra, 8, and Koen, 5.

A young Auckland mother is feared to have days left to live after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer after a two-year journey fighting breast cancer.

Kendal Buchanan, 34, was last week told she had two months to live – but her family believe she only has a couple of days left in her.

Speaking to the Herald, Buchanan’s older sister, Candice, said the past two years had been “very hard” for the family.

“It’s so difficult, especially for me and my brother. There’s three of us and now we’re losing one. That’s so hard that there’s just going to be two of us left.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Reflecting on her sister’s journey, Buchanan said it started when they were both contacted by a female cousin in 2022, informing them that she had tested positive for a mutated BRCA2 gene.

The BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are found in everyone and are normally expressed in cells of the breasts and other tissue, where they help repair damaged DNA. But they can mutate and increase the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.

Buchanan said as soon as her sister heard the news, she decided to get tested – which found she also had a BRCA2 gene mutation.

“She went and had an MRI and that’s when they found the cancer in her breast,” she said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“She wasn’t taking any chances, she had a mastectomy and of course she was so devastated by that because she had a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old at the time.”

Many women who test positive for the gene mutation opt to remove their breasts, which reduces the risk of developing cancer by 95%.

“She did everything that she could. She had radiation, chemotherapy,” Buchanan said.

Cancer was found in a couple of her lymph nodes on her right side, which were subsequently removed.

Buchanan said Kendal was cleared after that, until the beginning of 2024 when she had a big seizure at work.

“She had been having migraines for a long time so she went and saw her GP ... That’s when she was diagnosed with brain cancer.”

Kendal Buchanan was diagnosed with brain cancer after a seizure at work at the beginning of the year. She had been suffering migraines for some time.
Kendal Buchanan was diagnosed with brain cancer after a seizure at work at the beginning of the year. She had been suffering migraines for some time.

An encapsulated tumour was found, which she had surgery to remove before having radiation therapy on her brain.

“A few weeks ago she was feeling really rubbish and she thought it was just from the radiation, so they did a scan and saw the cancer was just all over her brain,” Buchanan said.

She said the cancer was over the meninges – the layers of membranes that cover and protect your brain and spinal cord.

Kendal went to the specialist last Monday, where she was told she had two months to live.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“But it’s been one week and she’s definitely going to die in the next couple of days. She’s deteriorated a lot.”

She said Kendal, who turned 34 at the beginning of October, had been “amazing” through her two-year journey and “really wanted to fight for her kids”.

Kendal Buchanan with her two children – 8-year-old Ezra and 5-year-old Koen.
Kendal Buchanan with her two children – 8-year-old Ezra and 5-year-old Koen.

“She told her son and daughter, ‘I’m fighting so hard for you and mummy is not going to give up ... I’m going to do everything I can to fight this’.”

Her mother described her as “our Wahine Toa warrior woman”.

A Givealittle fundraiser set up for Kendal and her children’s day-to-day expenses said the BRCA2 gene had “cursed” the family.

“Unfortunately Kendal has been told she’s terminal. At this point we just want to support the kids,” the page read.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Buchanan said her sister has lived for her two young children – Ezra, 8, and Koen, 5 – and everything she did was to give them a good experience.

At the beginning of this year, Kendal took to social media reflecting on the past 12 months, saying; “I did go through a lot.

“From operations, procedures, infections, hematoma, chemo, radiation, skin change, body change (inside and out), lack of energy levels, bone density infusion, menopause and I couldn’t count the hospital visits I’ve been to – all while raising two beautiful tiny humans,” the post read.

“So this year I’m not surviving. This year’s about living.”

Kendal Buchanan's sister said she "really wanted to fight for her kids”.
Kendal Buchanan's sister said she "really wanted to fight for her kids”.

Reflecting on her sister’s life, Buchanan said she loved skulls – which was uncanny as she was destined to die around Halloween.

“She’s always, always been into skulls and coffins and death and all that kind of stuff. She’s very much that kind of girl. And now that she’s passing away around Halloween, it’s very fitting for her.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

She described Kendal as someone who “just loved to be with her friends and family”.

Kendal’s journey had been “really rough” on her cousins – a lot of them have also tested positive for the BRCA2 gene.

“It’s very terrifying for them that they’re potentially going to have to go through this. We’ve already lost so many of our family members young.

“Not just the people that are positive, because we love them. It’s our siblings, cousins, aunties and uncles that have to fight this gene now that they’ve watched Kendal suffer.”

Buchanan said her sister had been in an inpatient hospice unit in Auckland for the past three days, surrounded by friends and family.

“The last few weeks everybody has been there for her. All our cousins far and wide have travelled and spent time with her.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Benjamin Plummer is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He has worked for the Herald since 2022.

Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

Health NZ board re-established by Government

07 Jul 08:03 AM
New Zealand|crime

'The man I once trusted violently raped me': Man jailed for attacking ex-wife next to sleeping child

07 Jul 08:00 AM
Premium
Business|companies

Tech Insider: UK tells retailers to use NZ’s Auror crime-fighting software

07 Jul 07:00 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Health NZ board re-established by Government

Health NZ board re-established by Government

07 Jul 08:03 AM

Current Health NZ commissioner Lester Levy has been placed in charge.

'The man I once trusted violently raped me': Man jailed for attacking ex-wife next to sleeping child

'The man I once trusted violently raped me': Man jailed for attacking ex-wife next to sleeping child

07 Jul 08:00 AM
Premium
Tech Insider: UK tells retailers to use NZ’s Auror crime-fighting software

Tech Insider: UK tells retailers to use NZ’s Auror crime-fighting software

07 Jul 07:00 AM
'Do it now, run him over'. Teen who ran over mother's partner twice can finally be named

'Do it now, run him over'. Teen who ran over mother's partner twice can finally be named

07 Jul 07:00 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP