‘Cheeky’ push made Matt run
A woman with brain cancer tracked down TVNZ personality Matt Chisholm and ‘‘cheekily’’ pushed him to do the Queenstown half marathon with her.
Alice Chambers-Smith, 36, was the first Kiwi to have her brain tumour treated with the pioneering drug Gliolan. She signed up for the 21km half marathon run on November 16 to raise money for the Malaghan Institute. But with her memory compromised due to the tumour, the mother-of-two kept forgetting about it.
‘‘I thought: I will set up an Instagram account and follow all these runners and try to stay motivated, and that will keep my memories going that I am actually signed up for this thing,’’ she said. One of the ‘‘runners’’ that caught her attention was Chisholm, who posted about his wife signing him up to run the 11km Traverse in Auckland to raise funds for Starship Hospital.
So, on a whim, she left a message from her account, catch_me_ if_you_cancer: ‘‘Nice work Mr & Mrs Chisholm. If you decide you do like running please come keep me company running the Queenstown Marathon ... I will be running for brain cancer research and it is the most scenic marathon trail on earth after all.’’
After posting the comment she ‘‘forgot all about it’’.
And then, the Celebrity Treasure Island host responded.
‘‘I just thought, far out, I don’t know this woman and that is pretty classic that she has called me out like that,’’ Chisholm told Stuff. ‘‘Mainly I just loved the cheekiness of her.’’
There were obstacles. When Chisholm went to get his place in the half marathon, it was full. But Chambers-Smith would not let him off that easily, telling him to ‘‘play the famous card’’ and ring the organisers.
‘‘I hate doing that s... because I don’t want to look like a w ..... ,’’ said Chisholm, ‘‘but then I was like, she might have a point and by this stage I quite liked her and her story.’’ The play worked, and Chisholm got a number.
But worse was to come. A perfect storm of landscape work at Chambers-Smith’s Wellington home, her poor memory and weakened left side led to a bad leg injury. This time, it was her turn to try to give Chisholm an out. ‘‘I was like: Hey mate you are completely off the hook because I am currently in the hospital with a damaged leg, so, you know, change your flights or cancel them or whatever.
‘‘And he was like: Nah, no skin off my nose, if we have to walk it we will walk it.’’
In this respect Chisholm was probably one of the best celebrities Chambers-Smith could have turned to.
Chisholm has had his own personal battles. He had a major depressive episode at the end of last year and took up running ‘‘cos it is good for my head’’.
‘‘I can’t liken my situation to hers,’’ Chisholm said. ‘‘But I know that for all of us life is finite and I don’t know how much time I have left or she has left and so I just think together we are better than doing things individually.’’
A few weeks ago, with Chambers-Smith on crutches, the two had the chance to meet in Wellington. ‘‘It was just like meeting a friend,’’ Chambers-Smith said.