Wairarapa’s locally owned community newspaper
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
I N S I D E: S K AT I N G O N TO T H E W O R L D S TAG E P8
The great book hunt P3
We’re local like you
Richmond Funeral Home ~Incorporating Clareville Crematorium
Masterton
Property Management Ltd
Your property, our priority.
Phone 06 377 4961 | 186 Chapel St, Kuripuni, Masterton Email office@mastertonrentals.co.nz | www.mastertonrentals.co.nz
‘Personalised farewells based on traditional values’ Phone: (06) 3797616
www.richmondfuneralhome.co.nz Peter & Jenny Giddens Serving Sth Wairarapa for over 40 years Tried, Trusted and Proven
Dragon boats, second chances and silver linings
FLAIR FOR ALL YOUR FLOORING NEEDS See our advert in Wairarapa Property 97-101 High St North, Carterton Ph 06 379 4055
Lucy Cooper
lucy.cooper@age.co.nz
“Holy crap, I’m not fit enough for this!” This was Sandie Fletcher’s response to her first paddle out on a dragon boat on Masterton’s Henley Lake with the Wairarapa Dragon Boat Club two and a half years ago. She was at the tail end of a near decade-long journey battling – and beating – breast cancer. What she terms her “medical adventure” involved a single mastectomy, 11 rounds of chemo [which had to be stopped because she became so weak], radiation therapy, infusions of cancer treatment drug Herceptin, and a long wait for breast reconstruction surgery.
Unsurprisingly, the experience left her feeling “battered and bruised”. “You go into cancer treatment, and you are crapping yourself,” she said. “You kind of have to surrender and submit to the fact that this is how it’s going to be.” “I felt like, ‘I don’t want to go to this [treatment] four times a week. I don’t want you to have five goes at getting the cannula into my arm. I don’t want to sit here all day for chemo. I want to be able to drive my kids to school’. “It’s super hard. But you have to let go. You have to let people help you. And you spend that whole treatment time letting stuff happen to you – showing up for your appointments, doing what you’re told, Continued on page 3
Sandie sweeping at the recent Dragonboat Festival in Wellington. PHOTOS/BIG TOP MARK & CO
CIVIC TYPE R 2024 MODEL IN STOCK NOW 2 colours available for immediate delivery