localmatters.co.nz
August 21, 2019
Your locally-owned Community Newspaper FREE
Inside this issue Stanmore rocks removed
page 8
Focus on fathers
Jenni Palmer is running a marathon to give someone affected by cancer a berth onboard the Spirit of New Zealand.
pages 14 to 20
Cancer survivor runs marathon for charity Twenty-one year old Jenni Palmer says she learned some powerful lessons from her first hand experience with cancer, and also from sailing on the tall ship Spirit of NZ. She is hoping to connect the two by providing a young person affected by cancer with a voyage on the Spirit. To make that happen, she is running a marathon.
Currently in her final year of a Bachelor of Science (neuroscience and biochemistry major) at Otago University, Jenni has lived on the Hibiscus Coast her whole life. Last year she was diagnosed with stage two Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells. She says getting cancer “isn’t what you expect for your second year of university and it
certainly made life take an interesting direction”. After several months of chemotherapy, Jenni was given the all clear in May, on her 21st birthday. She says of course the news was “the best birthday present ever” but that she had also gained a lot from the experience. “I’ve learnt some pretty powerful lessons about perseverance,
keeping positive, the strength in friendship and the importance of the relationships you have with those around you, which is something that I think will last with me far longer than most of the side effects of treatment,” Jenni says. Almost straight after she got the allclear, Jenni put on her running shoes continued page 2