The pancreatic cancer patient on a mission to save lives

Based on the stats, Nyree Smith should be dead.
But for seven years, she’s beaten the odds.
“I don’t know why I am still here… I question, why isn’t someone studying me,” she says.
“I want to be studied. If I could help… if there is something I could do that would help someone else, of course I would want to be studied. In fact, I shouldn’t really say this, but I have offered my oncologist my tumours after I die – take them, study them – I have had scans since before I was diagnosed so they can manifest a study of how my cancer has developed.”
But will specialists take her up on the offer?
“No, don’t have the money. But Australia want them.”
Nyree was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer seven years ago, in September 2017. She had no symptoms, just a new “pushy doctor”, who insisted on her getting a full checkup.
Her cancer is normally among the deadliest – from diagnosis to death is four to nine months, on average.
But Nyree Smith is, somehow, defying those odds.
She is in stage four, meaning it’s terminal, but she is still full of life and on a relentless mission.
“If I can save one life, if I can get one person with a stomach ache to go to their GP and go ‘I need further tests please’ and we save a life, then I have survived this long for a reason… because I can’t work out why, I can’t work out why I am still here.”
On average, 15 Kiwis are diagnosed with a gut cancer every day – that’s nearly 6000 a year.
There are seven gut cancers, and pancreatic is one of the deadliest.
Awareness and early detection are crucial. And that’s what this month – Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month – is all about.
“My legacy is saving a life, getting more awareness out there… actually, I’m not doing this for a legacy… I’m doing it for now, for the moment, to get it out there. I don’t want to bang on about it but if I can help someone be their own advocate when they go to their GP, and it saves them from going through what I’m going through… then that’s my legacy.”
To raise funds and more awareness, Nyree has helped organise The Enchanting Hidden Gems Matakana Garden Tour on November 21st. Tickets are limited but still available.
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