Family aiming high to remember wife, mother
Despite facing terminal cancer, Alison Starr stopped smiling.
The Nelson woman lived so courageously in her final years, her family are taking on a physical challenge in a tribute to her fighting spirit.
Alison’s husband, Simon, and sons Dean and Todd are climbing to Everest Base Camp in October to raise funds for the hospice that allowed her to die with dignity.
Alison was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 and had a lump removed from her breast. But months later, the cancer returned. When it became clear the cancer was terminal, the couple who had been together 33 years brought their retirement forward and decided to travel.
‘‘We were adamant that as a pair, until death us do part, we would go through this journey together,’’ Simon Starr said. ‘‘It was always in the back of our minds that we didn’t have long.’’
The couple travelled to Fiji, Thailand and the United States, returning home between each trip so Alison could be treated. In 2018 they went back to the UK to farewell friends and family.
She spent the last four days of her life in hospice care and died on May 31, 2018.
The Base Camp hike idea came from son Dean. ‘‘He said, ‘what do breast never you think Dad? We could raise money in remembrance of mum, all the other sufferers and hospice too’. How could I say no?’’
The trio will trek 130 kilometres over 10 days to reach Base Camp at an altitude of 5380 metres. They have funded the trip themselves and any money they raise from a Givealittle page will go to the new Nelson Tasman Hospice building in Stoke. So far, more than $7000 has been donated.