BOOZE WARNING
‘If he had his way, no-one would be drinking alcohol at all.’ DAVE MCCLELLAND
permission to sell at a home show at the arena in April, but also wanted a stall at a caravan expo around the same time. Each time he wants to set out a stall at an event, the company must apply to the local council for a special event licence.
‘‘I did it the wrong way. Because of my filming [MAFS] and what I was doing at the time, I had to get WHILE his friends are getting married, thinking about having children and planning their 30th birthdays, Daniel Greening is preparing to say goodbye to a well-lived – but cruelly cut short – life.
Two months ago, the 28-year-old was living it up in Australia, helping plan a New Year’s Eve bash and wondering what 2019 held in store for him.
Days later Greening found himself in a Brisbane hospital bed facing a diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer. While coming home to Wellington wasn’t meant to be the plan, he had to return to where a hospice bed and his family’s open arms awaited.
Despite the diagnosis, Greening sees what’s happening to him as ‘‘just bad luck’’.
As for his family, it’s about making the most of whatever time is left with their boy. Parents Victor and Anna Greening have been by his bedside ‘‘hanging out’’ every day. There are no hushed tones; everyone speaks someone else to put the paperwork through.
‘‘I sent the wrong ones through for the wrong event and they tried to accuse me of trying to forge a document to enter a show . . . I dropped the ball. I openly about the diagnosis and the less-than-ideal events leading up to it. Greening was misdiagnosed about seven times.
‘‘It all started about eight months ago but I just thought it was because I was unhealthy, only eating chips and junk food,’’ Greening said.
He went to the doctor with prolonged stomach pain and was given acid reflux medication. It worked temporarily but within a month the pain was back.
For months Greening sought answers but doctors weren’t looking for pancreatic cancer in someone so young. He changed GPs and one explored whether he had a hernia.
‘‘I thought, ‘finally they’ll come to a conclusion’ after he told me to get some tests. He found it wasn’t my hernia but should have been paying attention to what I was doing more closely.’’
McClelland gets around the ban by getting staff to hold special licences for each event, which is legit. ‘‘I don’t need to hold a licence . . . we have duty managers who do that for us,’’ he explained.
McClelland imports the cocktails from Australia, but is hoping to make the mixture here in New Zealand.
He found fame on the second season of the reality TV show last year, after being paired with 32-year-old Julia Malley, but the partnership didn’t last.
A spokesman for police said: ‘‘Anyone who is issued with a pre charge warning has a right to privacy and on this basis we are not in a position to answer your specific questions.
‘‘A pre-charge warning is a lawful alternative to prosecution for some minor offenders.
‘‘Police officers have discretion on how they deal with a range of matters this includes a number of alternative resolution options such as pre-charge warnings.’’
‘We want to get suited up, hit the town and splash a bit of money.’ DANIEL GREENING
he had noticed some fluid inside my stomach.’’
An ultrasound revealed a lump in his pancreas and several other ‘‘splits and swabs’’ scattered around his body.
‘‘That’s when they said it was pancreatic cancer and sent me straight to hospital. It was just random how it happened ... it’s just bad luck.’’ Surgery wasn’t an option. In lieu of treatment, he has a few other things keeping him going, namely his friends across the ditch. Art supplies sit in the corner of Greening’s hospice room, and a ‘‘crew’’ of more than a dozen visited him before his chemotherapy began.
They’re the ones packing up Greening’s hastily left flat in Australia, organising a crowdfunding effort, and planning trips to Wellington to ensure their mate isn’t alone.
A Las Vegas trip had been on the cards but Greening’s doctors weren’t so keen. His friends are undeterred.
‘‘All the boys are still trying to figure something out, we want to get suited up, hit the town and splash a bit of money . . . even somewhere in NZ would be all good.’’