Wairarapa Midweek Wed 12th Sept

Wairarapa’s locally owned community newspaper

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2018

INSIDE: New men’s group celebrates brotherhood P4

Hope Walk unites P3 ARE YOU A VIP CUSTOMER? Read ‘Garden Yarn’ on Page 9 to find out if you’re one of our

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A life of many ‘second chances’ Emily Ireland Most people would call the life of Peter Knighton a tough one. He calls it “blessed”. The Wairarapa disability advocate has had more than his fair share of hardships, beginning before he was even born. Yet he lives with an optimism unmatched by many, making it his mission in life to show others that even in the darkest times, “there is always hope”. Peter’s journey was ﬁrst documented publicly in 1977. He was 16 months old and his parents Judy and Bob Knighton had gone to the Takapuna Times newspaper, sharing their concerns about the eﬀects the herbicide 2,4,5-T had on their son.

At that young age, Peter was suffering from a cancer-related disorder of the lymphatic system and had to be taken to Auckland Hospital every week for life-giving drugs. While Judy was pregnant with Peter, a farm across the road from their home was heavily sprayed with the herbicide, drifting onto their roof and contaminating the family’s water tank. “It didn’t affect mum because her immune system was fully developed, but because mine wasn’t, it affected me,” Peter said. He grew normally until he was about three months old and his growth slowed. “I didn’t like lying on my front and wouldn’t learn to crawl,

so my parents bought me a walker.” At nine months his parents found a lump behind his ear which doctors thought was a bruise. “When it didn’t go away, it grew. I went in for surgery, and they found it was cancerous. “I was diagnosed with a very rare and often terminal form of cancer. I started chemotherapy when I was 10 months old.” His mum told the Takapuna Times that she and her husband had “accepted the fact that Peter might die as a result of this”. He went into remission, but after six months, the cancer returned, and he had to do another year of chemotherapy. “It caused damage to my brain, which led to major speech impairment, frontal lobe damage and ataxic cerebral palsy, which aﬀected the right side of my body. “My frontal lobe functions at 3 per cent.” In the years that followed Peter’s rough start to life, he faced other hardships including Continued on page 3

Peter Knighton, of Masterton. PHOTO/EMILY IRELAND

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