August 18, 2024 • 17 mins
1 in 3 people will deal with cancer in their lives, which is why the work the Cancer Society does in Aotearoa is so important. In this episode, Toni chats with the Cancer Society CEO Andrew Young about his personal experience with cancer and how this prompted his move from journalism into working at the Cancer Society.
They also talk about the important work the Cancer Society does, and how you can help this Daffodil Day and beyond!
If you want to help the Cancer Society you can click here to donate
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We need to Talk Conversations on wellness with cocfm's Tony Street.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hello, welcome to we need to talk. One in three
people will get cancer in their lifetime. It's a pretty
grim statistic, but it's reality and many key we families
will already know the impact cancer can have on their world.
I'm one of those people. I lost my eighteen month
old twin brother Lance to leukemia, and although I was
too young to remember that terrible time personally, my parents
(00:27):
have shared the devastating impact with me, from the horror
of watching your incredibly sick child fight for their life
to picking up the pieces and finding some semblance of
life after they're gone. One thing that sticks in my
mind is how often my mum sung the praises of
the Cancer Society, how supportive and caring they were when
my parents were at their lowest trying to care for
(00:47):
a sick child. They've never forgotten how wonderful the Cancer
Society was to them. You don't know how much you
need that support until you are personally faced with cancer,
and that's why this Daffodil Day is particularly important. In
the midst of a cost of living crisis, people are
still getting sick and they still need help more than ever.
The Cancer Society is there, but they cannot operate without donations.
(01:11):
As CEO of the Cancer Society, Andrew Young knows how
valuable donations are. But also from a very personal perspective, Andrew,
it's great to have you with us today. Unfortunately, though,
your life is being touched by cancer as well. Can
you tell us about that?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, good day, Tony. Like many Kiwis, our family has
been touched deeply by cancer. Mum got diagnosed with cancer
many years ago and it smacked us in the face.
Mum was a pocket rocket full of energy, just out
there doing stuff and she got diagnosed with a very
(01:48):
aggressive lung cancer and it took her within three months.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Now, as a family, we weren't remotely prepared for losing
my mum, and the cancerciety came and wrapped their beautiful
arms around us and nurtured Mum. The community nurses helped
come and explain to Mum what was happening to her.
She turned palliative pretty quick, so it was just nursing
(02:14):
her through that. But I'll never forget the volunteer drivers.
Mum couldn't breathe with the liquid fluid filling mum's lungs,
so she had to go into hospital regularly, but she
was too weak to drive, and for a fiercely independent woman,
that was really hard for mum to take. All of
us were scattered around the country, around the world as
her five children, so we were flying home a lot.
(02:34):
But Mum felt really guilty that most of us had
about three kids, each very young at the time, and
Mum didn't want us coming home that often. So the
Cancer Society she just felt so supported and that took
so much pressure off our family. And yeah, they took
her in the volunteer drivers every second day to get
(02:55):
her lungs drained, to give her a bit more time,
And yeah, it was really special and as a family
we will never forget how amazing that care and compassion
was at a time of huge grief and need.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Do you think, as the son of a mother that
was going through that, you realized that those resources and
help was available. Would you have known that prior.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I've been working in the health system for decades and
I knew that the CAN Society existed. I figured they
were really good people doing good stuff. But like many Kiwis,
unless it affects you directly. You don't really have an idea.
You have a peripheral idea of good people doing good work,
But now I had no idea the array of services
(03:38):
or these an army of volunteers that mobilizes every day
for the can Society to do amazing work.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
You just spoke of the help in terms of driving
your mum to the appointments. I know there are other
free services that the Cancer Society offers. Can you just
run us through some of those?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Our big game is to ensure that no one faces
cancers are alone. So on a broad scale, we have
our oh eight hundred cancer phone line that people can
call and ask their burning questions, and we also have
our Cancer Society website which has a huge amount of
information and people can contact us directly through that and
(04:20):
then across New Zealand we cater for We try and
cater for the specific needs of each area, but generally
we have a broad range of free services that help
patients infarno. At a deeper level. One of those is
our community nurses or community navigators, who kind of walk
alongside patients and check in regularly with them through their
(04:41):
cancer journey, and that can include visiting them in their
home to have cups of tea and chats or regular
phone ands to make sure they're doing okay. Then we
have a team around the country of psychologists and counselors
because we really know that it's so mentally tough going
coping with life threatening conditions like cancer for patients and
(05:04):
their loved ones. And it's not just the patient coping mentally,
but we get questions through our psychology team, how do
we broach this with our kids? How do we tell
our kids that I've been diagnosed with cancer. Another area
is our whole army of volunteer drivers and they take
patients to and from their hospital visits, which, as I
(05:29):
said before, that was a essential service for people like
my mum who couldn't drive. Then a fourth area is
our accommodation service. So we have cancer lodges dotted right
around the country that are free of charge, and they're
mainly for people who are from out of town and
have to drive huge distances to get to life saving treatment.
(05:52):
And they're often referred to our cancer lodges through their
oncologists or local hospitals and overall, often many times patients
and Farno will tell us that if we didn't offer
these services, they just would have given up on their
cancer care and maybe stop treatment or never been able
to get to treatment. So we hear every day that
(06:15):
these services are really invaluable, and yeah, people are really
grateful for them.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And I think you bring up such an important point.
One Not everyone has family instantly accessible, so they could
be overseas. I think back to my personal situation and
when my twin brother was diagnosed with leukemia. My parents
were dairy farmers and Taranaki where you couldn't get cancer treatment.
So quite often my mother would have to travel with
(06:42):
my brother up to Auckland to have treatment. And that's
where the accommodation came into it, because my father just
couldn't get off the dairy farm. Yeah enough to be
there constantly, and that was we had family members. But
even then, the logistics side of it is just so
so tough.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You're listening, do we need a talk with Tony Street?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
How do you manage to fund all of this? I mean,
where do your donations come from? And how is the
current climate impacting that?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So we don't get any direct government funding, so we
rely almost entirely on the goodwill of Kiwis, the goodwill
of the public and corporate New Zealand. So each year,
this is why my hair is turning gray quite rapidly.
In a CEO position, you're always I'm always worried about
(07:34):
money because our services are free and we don't want
to start charging people because we see and hear on
a daily basis how people would have given up without
our services. They wouldn't have traveled to their center of
treatment be at christ Church, Wellington, Auckland and Eden. They
wouldn't have known how to navigate the system, or if
the volunteer driver hadn't driven them, they would have just
(07:57):
not gone to treatment. Now we can't let's actible to me.
We have to be here as a caring society and
as a great country, we have to have people here
my services, our services have to continue for heaps of
people in need. So months like August, where we run
daffoit all day so important to us, critical because that
(08:18):
brings in the money that we need. We're fundraising throughout
the year. But Daffodil Day is a great sort of
day that we like to celebrate and we want Keywis
to get out there and really think about those that
they've loved and lost to cancer, because I think it
affects so many of us. Almost everyone I talked to
has been affected by cancer in some way. So it's
(08:38):
just a chance that we are the public to give
something to us so we can continue our services as
have to contain.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Per year for you to provide these services.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
It would be between thirty five and forty five million
dollars per year.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
And how important is the daffodil month in proportion to
those funds.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, so that would Deafitel day Touchwood brings in over
five million dollars each each huge from the one day. Yeah,
you know, it's not for us just about raising money.
It's about the awareness as well, because we want people
to think about cancer. We want people to think about
their own health and to get checked out because early
(09:24):
detection is really important. So yes, while we're out there
with our team of ten thousand volunteers collecting money, it's
about awareness as well.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Have you noticed a decline in donations because of the
tight cost of living at the moment.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
We reliant on a whole bunch of people who give
readily to the Cancer Society, and they give monthly, and
we've had lots of people calling Over the last few years.
COVID's been terrible for the whole world. Cost of living
crisis has been terrible for many many people. Kiwis are
really great, though, Tony in that people rung and said,
(10:01):
we are giving potentially x amount per month, we can't
afford to do that anymore, but could we give a
smaller amount? And obviously the answer is yes, please, and
thank you so much. So Yeah, some people have had
to stop, but they've said we will start giving again
when we can. And we absolutely know that people have
to put food on the table. That's really really important.
(10:22):
But we know that the Can Society is the most
trusted cancer charity in the country and that trust is
earned and hopefully through people's lived experience, they know the
value of the services. People are generally really really good,
but it has been really really tough.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
The staff it all day. I feel like has already
had some pretty good traction, and I know we've got
plans that enz me to have quite a splash that
day to try and help you guys out. What are
the plans? What I you've done differently this year.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah, it always gravitates around Dafitil Day, which is thirtieth
of August, which is a Friday. But this year we've
kind of extended the ability to give love. So with
COVID and people working from home Friday Fridays, I have
turned in some places into a bit of a ghost town,
so we've had to think a bit outside that. So
(11:12):
we've turned I'll still be at work on that Friday,
I know, but for many Kiwis, they are working from
home on a Friday, so there's no point getting ten
thousand volunteers out there and standing on empty streets. So
we've had to think outside the square. And so it's
not necessarily Daffitil Day toning it, but that is our
kind of gravitational day. But we're putting some volunteers out
(11:35):
on the streets on a Thursday and some centers on
a Friday and Saturday as well, so we've had to, yeah,
extend the party if you will to and often people
will look at us and they'll see the bright yellow
and people volunteers dress up and wear crazy yellow tutus
and big daffitial heads and stuff like that, and it's amazing.
(11:58):
So it is a bit of a street party. So
We've just made it bigger this year.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
I love it and great idea because you're right Fridays.
I mean, it's kind of cool we have those flexible
working days now, but there is the is the downside.
You can't ever get anyone in the office at the
same time. Is there anything you can share with us
in terms of research cancer wise that you've felt really
positive about. That's a positive encouraging sign for the Cancer Society.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I feel positive about research all the time because I'm
lucky to work alongside some of the brainiest people. And
I would say not only the country, but the world.
The Cancer Society is the biggest private funder of cancer
research in New Zealand and we fund brilliant brains and minds.
Sir William Denny, who's just retired a few weeks ago,
(12:46):
he's dedicated fifty five years of his life to cancer research.
He's still going in retirement, but he is a proud
ki We living up here in Auckland and he is
globally renowned. And it's people like Sir William who drive
the cancer research agenda. The great thing Tony about cancer
research is that we live in a world where the
(13:06):
researchers will pull their knowledge around the world, so it's
not just the great stuff that's happening here, it's the
great stuff happening around the world. And the thing that
I'm most excited about is, you know, often people going
through chemotherapy go through a hard time because the chemotherapy
comes in, the infusions come in, and if you will
poison their entire body, so many of the cells suffer,
(13:27):
not just the cancer cells. What our cancer researchers have
been really focusing on is how do you just target
the cancer cells and deprive them of the nutrients that
they thrive on and oxygen is the key thing, So
how do we make sure that we kill off those cells?
And there have been some really promising things in the
last few years that they are really focusing on. But
(13:48):
cancer is a long research is a long game, so
it's not going to happen overnight. But every year they
make huge strides and I am so emboldened by the
great work that they do and the dedicated year after
year these researchers are in their labs doing amazing work.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
That's a great development. I've got a friend of mine
going through cancer at the moment, and the chemotherapy, it
doesn't really knock you around. So anything that could make
that side of it more manageable, even just for the
mental side of your recovery, fantastic. So we know that
there'll be the daffodil buckets on the Friday slash Thursday.
How else can people help and donate and where do
(14:26):
they go to?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, so the biggest way people can donat us online
and that's at dubdubdub dot Daffodil Day dot org dot nz.
Already we are getting donations through our website. Schools are
doing their thing. Schools are amazing and many of the
kids around the country do Mufty Days and bake sales
(14:47):
on things, and so many offices and businesses around New
Zealand as well. We have amazing support and we're seeing
that happen already. So yeah, get that bacon going and
eat up in New Zealand because it's for a good cause.
And A and Z is our major partner for daft
all Day and they have proudly supported the Cancer Society
(15:08):
for thirty four years, which is incredible. And A and
Z is made up of people like you and me,
hundreds of people who have had personal experiences with cancer
and that gives them the passion to fundraise. They do
internal bait sales, they do auctions and crazy stuff. So
the support we've had from A and Z as well
(15:29):
as helping us drive awareness and open all their channels
up to their customers and to the general public is incredible.
So you know, over the past few decades they've helped
us raise over twenty million dollars. But they would be
you know, standing alongside me to say this is a
team effort. We need all the help we can get
(15:50):
in the face of rising cancer rates. At the moment,
it's one in three Keywis will get cancer within their lifetime.
The Global Research forecasts one and two of us get
cancer within twenty years, so that's a lot sure as so, yeah,
we need all the help we can get. We've got
to keep our services going, we've got to keep the
(16:11):
research going. And more people are going to live with cancer,
more people are going to survive because of medical technology,
so we need to keep making sure that people survive,
but they thrive after that as well, after the diagnosis.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, Andrew, thank you so much for today and sharing
a bit about daffitial day and where the funds come
from where they go and if you are compelled to
support the Cancer Society, you know where to go the website,
but also on the Daffitil Day look out for the
A and Z banks that no doubt have a lot
going on. Donations you can go throughout the entire month
(16:45):
of August and beyond. It doesn't just stop after Daffiitil Day.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Absolutely, Yeah, thanks for having me your tune pleasure.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
We need to talk with Coaster FMS Tony Street. If
you enjoyed the podcast, click to share with family or friends.
To get in toid email, we need to talk at
Coast online, dot co dot inz
We need to Talk Conversations on wellness with cocfm's Tony Street.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hello, welcome to we need to talk. One in three
people will get cancer in their lifetime. It's a pretty
grim statistic, but it's reality and many key we families
will already know the impact cancer can have on their world.
I'm one of those people. I lost my eighteen month
old twin brother Lance to leukemia, and although I was
too young to remember that terrible time personally, my parents
(00:27):
have shared the devastating impact with me, from the horror
of watching your incredibly sick child fight for their life
to picking up the pieces and finding some semblance of
life after they're gone. One thing that sticks in my
mind is how often my mum sung the praises of
the Cancer Society, how supportive and caring they were when
my parents were at their lowest trying to care for
(00:47):
a sick child. They've never forgotten how wonderful the Cancer
Society was to them. You don't know how much you
need that support until you are personally faced with cancer,
and that's why this Daffodil Day is particularly important. In
the midst of a cost of living crisis, people are
still getting sick and they still need help more than ever.
The Cancer Society is there, but they cannot operate without donations.
(01:11):
As CEO of the Cancer Society, Andrew Young knows how
valuable donations are. But also from a very personal perspective, Andrew,
it's great to have you with us today. Unfortunately, though,
your life is being touched by cancer as well. Can
you tell us about that?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, good day, Tony. Like many Kiwis, our family has
been touched deeply by cancer. Mum got diagnosed with cancer
many years ago and it smacked us in the face.
Mum was a pocket rocket full of energy, just out
there doing stuff and she got diagnosed with a very
(01:48):
aggressive lung cancer and it took her within three months.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Now, as a family, we weren't remotely prepared for losing
my mum, and the cancerciety came and wrapped their beautiful
arms around us and nurtured Mum. The community nurses helped
come and explain to Mum what was happening to her.
She turned palliative pretty quick, so it was just nursing
(02:14):
her through that. But I'll never forget the volunteer drivers.
Mum couldn't breathe with the liquid fluid filling mum's lungs,
so she had to go into hospital regularly, but she
was too weak to drive, and for a fiercely independent woman,
that was really hard for mum to take. All of
us were scattered around the country, around the world as
her five children, so we were flying home a lot.
(02:34):
But Mum felt really guilty that most of us had
about three kids, each very young at the time, and
Mum didn't want us coming home that often. So the
Cancer Society she just felt so supported and that took
so much pressure off our family. And yeah, they took
her in the volunteer drivers every second day to get
(02:55):
her lungs drained, to give her a bit more time,
And yeah, it was really special and as a family
we will never forget how amazing that care and compassion
was at a time of huge grief and need.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Do you think, as the son of a mother that
was going through that, you realized that those resources and
help was available. Would you have known that prior.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I've been working in the health system for decades and
I knew that the CAN Society existed. I figured they
were really good people doing good stuff. But like many Kiwis,
unless it affects you directly. You don't really have an idea.
You have a peripheral idea of good people doing good work,
But now I had no idea the array of services
(03:38):
or these an army of volunteers that mobilizes every day
for the can Society to do amazing work.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
You just spoke of the help in terms of driving
your mum to the appointments. I know there are other
free services that the Cancer Society offers. Can you just
run us through some of those?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Our big game is to ensure that no one faces
cancers are alone. So on a broad scale, we have
our oh eight hundred cancer phone line that people can
call and ask their burning questions, and we also have
our Cancer Society website which has a huge amount of
information and people can contact us directly through that and
(04:20):
then across New Zealand we cater for We try and
cater for the specific needs of each area, but generally
we have a broad range of free services that help
patients infarno. At a deeper level. One of those is
our community nurses or community navigators, who kind of walk
alongside patients and check in regularly with them through their
(04:41):
cancer journey, and that can include visiting them in their
home to have cups of tea and chats or regular
phone ands to make sure they're doing okay. Then we
have a team around the country of psychologists and counselors
because we really know that it's so mentally tough going
coping with life threatening conditions like cancer for patients and
(05:04):
their loved ones. And it's not just the patient coping mentally,
but we get questions through our psychology team, how do
we broach this with our kids? How do we tell
our kids that I've been diagnosed with cancer. Another area
is our whole army of volunteer drivers and they take
patients to and from their hospital visits, which, as I
(05:29):
said before, that was a essential service for people like
my mum who couldn't drive. Then a fourth area is
our accommodation service. So we have cancer lodges dotted right
around the country that are free of charge, and they're
mainly for people who are from out of town and
have to drive huge distances to get to life saving treatment.
(05:52):
And they're often referred to our cancer lodges through their
oncologists or local hospitals and overall, often many times patients
and Farno will tell us that if we didn't offer
these services, they just would have given up on their
cancer care and maybe stop treatment or never been able
to get to treatment. So we hear every day that
(06:15):
these services are really invaluable, and yeah, people are really
grateful for them.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And I think you bring up such an important point.
One Not everyone has family instantly accessible, so they could
be overseas. I think back to my personal situation and
when my twin brother was diagnosed with leukemia. My parents
were dairy farmers and Taranaki where you couldn't get cancer treatment.
So quite often my mother would have to travel with
(06:42):
my brother up to Auckland to have treatment. And that's
where the accommodation came into it, because my father just
couldn't get off the dairy farm. Yeah enough to be
there constantly, and that was we had family members. But
even then, the logistics side of it is just so
so tough.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You're listening, do we need a talk with Tony Street?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
How do you manage to fund all of this? I mean,
where do your donations come from? And how is the
current climate impacting that?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So we don't get any direct government funding, so we
rely almost entirely on the goodwill of Kiwis, the goodwill
of the public and corporate New Zealand. So each year,
this is why my hair is turning gray quite rapidly.
In a CEO position, you're always I'm always worried about
(07:34):
money because our services are free and we don't want
to start charging people because we see and hear on
a daily basis how people would have given up without
our services. They wouldn't have traveled to their center of
treatment be at christ Church, Wellington, Auckland and Eden. They
wouldn't have known how to navigate the system, or if
the volunteer driver hadn't driven them, they would have just
(07:57):
not gone to treatment. Now we can't let's actible to me.
We have to be here as a caring society and
as a great country, we have to have people here
my services, our services have to continue for heaps of
people in need. So months like August, where we run
daffoit all day so important to us, critical because that
(08:18):
brings in the money that we need. We're fundraising throughout
the year. But Daffodil Day is a great sort of
day that we like to celebrate and we want Keywis
to get out there and really think about those that
they've loved and lost to cancer, because I think it
affects so many of us. Almost everyone I talked to
has been affected by cancer in some way. So it's
(08:38):
just a chance that we are the public to give
something to us so we can continue our services as
have to contain.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Per year for you to provide these services.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
It would be between thirty five and forty five million
dollars per year.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
And how important is the daffodil month in proportion to
those funds.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, so that would Deafitel day Touchwood brings in over
five million dollars each each huge from the one day. Yeah,
you know, it's not for us just about raising money.
It's about the awareness as well, because we want people
to think about cancer. We want people to think about
their own health and to get checked out because early
(09:24):
detection is really important. So yes, while we're out there
with our team of ten thousand volunteers collecting money, it's
about awareness as well.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Have you noticed a decline in donations because of the
tight cost of living at the moment.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
We reliant on a whole bunch of people who give
readily to the Cancer Society, and they give monthly, and
we've had lots of people calling Over the last few years.
COVID's been terrible for the whole world. Cost of living
crisis has been terrible for many many people. Kiwis are
really great, though, Tony in that people rung and said,
(10:01):
we are giving potentially x amount per month, we can't
afford to do that anymore, but could we give a
smaller amount? And obviously the answer is yes, please, and
thank you so much. So Yeah, some people have had
to stop, but they've said we will start giving again
when we can. And we absolutely know that people have
to put food on the table. That's really really important.
(10:22):
But we know that the Can Society is the most
trusted cancer charity in the country and that trust is
earned and hopefully through people's lived experience, they know the
value of the services. People are generally really really good,
but it has been really really tough.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
The staff it all day. I feel like has already
had some pretty good traction, and I know we've got
plans that enz me to have quite a splash that
day to try and help you guys out. What are
the plans? What I you've done differently this year.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah, it always gravitates around Dafitil Day, which is thirtieth
of August, which is a Friday. But this year we've
kind of extended the ability to give love. So with
COVID and people working from home Friday Fridays, I have
turned in some places into a bit of a ghost town,
so we've had to think a bit outside that. So
(11:12):
we've turned I'll still be at work on that Friday,
I know, but for many Kiwis, they are working from
home on a Friday, so there's no point getting ten
thousand volunteers out there and standing on empty streets. So
we've had to think outside the square. And so it's
not necessarily Daffitil Day toning it, but that is our
kind of gravitational day. But we're putting some volunteers out
(11:35):
on the streets on a Thursday and some centers on
a Friday and Saturday as well, so we've had to, yeah,
extend the party if you will to and often people
will look at us and they'll see the bright yellow
and people volunteers dress up and wear crazy yellow tutus
and big daffitial heads and stuff like that, and it's amazing.
(11:58):
So it is a bit of a street party. So
We've just made it bigger this year.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
I love it and great idea because you're right Fridays.
I mean, it's kind of cool we have those flexible
working days now, but there is the is the downside.
You can't ever get anyone in the office at the
same time. Is there anything you can share with us
in terms of research cancer wise that you've felt really
positive about. That's a positive encouraging sign for the Cancer Society.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I feel positive about research all the time because I'm
lucky to work alongside some of the brainiest people. And
I would say not only the country, but the world.
The Cancer Society is the biggest private funder of cancer
research in New Zealand and we fund brilliant brains and minds.
Sir William Denny, who's just retired a few weeks ago,
(12:46):
he's dedicated fifty five years of his life to cancer research.
He's still going in retirement, but he is a proud
ki We living up here in Auckland and he is
globally renowned. And it's people like Sir William who drive
the cancer research agenda. The great thing Tony about cancer
research is that we live in a world where the
(13:06):
researchers will pull their knowledge around the world, so it's
not just the great stuff that's happening here, it's the
great stuff happening around the world. And the thing that
I'm most excited about is, you know, often people going
through chemotherapy go through a hard time because the chemotherapy
comes in, the infusions come in, and if you will
poison their entire body, so many of the cells suffer,
(13:27):
not just the cancer cells. What our cancer researchers have
been really focusing on is how do you just target
the cancer cells and deprive them of the nutrients that
they thrive on and oxygen is the key thing, So
how do we make sure that we kill off those cells?
And there have been some really promising things in the
last few years that they are really focusing on. But
(13:48):
cancer is a long research is a long game, so
it's not going to happen overnight. But every year they
make huge strides and I am so emboldened by the
great work that they do and the dedicated year after
year these researchers are in their labs doing amazing work.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
That's a great development. I've got a friend of mine
going through cancer at the moment, and the chemotherapy, it
doesn't really knock you around. So anything that could make
that side of it more manageable, even just for the
mental side of your recovery, fantastic. So we know that
there'll be the daffodil buckets on the Friday slash Thursday.
How else can people help and donate and where do
(14:26):
they go to?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, so the biggest way people can donat us online
and that's at dubdubdub dot Daffodil Day dot org dot nz.
Already we are getting donations through our website. Schools are
doing their thing. Schools are amazing and many of the
kids around the country do Mufty Days and bake sales
(14:47):
on things, and so many offices and businesses around New
Zealand as well. We have amazing support and we're seeing
that happen already. So yeah, get that bacon going and
eat up in New Zealand because it's for a good cause.
And A and Z is our major partner for daft
all Day and they have proudly supported the Cancer Society
(15:08):
for thirty four years, which is incredible. And A and
Z is made up of people like you and me,
hundreds of people who have had personal experiences with cancer
and that gives them the passion to fundraise. They do
internal bait sales, they do auctions and crazy stuff. So
the support we've had from A and Z as well
(15:29):
as helping us drive awareness and open all their channels
up to their customers and to the general public is incredible.
So you know, over the past few decades they've helped
us raise over twenty million dollars. But they would be
you know, standing alongside me to say this is a
team effort. We need all the help we can get
(15:50):
in the face of rising cancer rates. At the moment,
it's one in three Keywis will get cancer within their lifetime.
The Global Research forecasts one and two of us get
cancer within twenty years, so that's a lot sure as so, yeah,
we need all the help we can get. We've got
to keep our services going, we've got to keep the
(16:11):
research going. And more people are going to live with cancer,
more people are going to survive because of medical technology,
so we need to keep making sure that people survive,
but they thrive after that as well, after the diagnosis.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, Andrew, thank you so much for today and sharing
a bit about daffitial day and where the funds come
from where they go and if you are compelled to
support the Cancer Society, you know where to go the website,
but also on the Daffitil Day look out for the
A and Z banks that no doubt have a lot
going on. Donations you can go throughout the entire month
(16:45):
of August and beyond. It doesn't just stop after Daffiitil Day.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Absolutely, Yeah, thanks for having me your tune pleasure.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
We need to talk with Coaster FMS Tony Street. If
you enjoyed the podcast, click to share with family or friends.
To get in toid email, we need to talk at
Coast online, dot co dot inz
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