Triple trauma
Gaye Fisher wants to know: ‘‘Who else has been through eight years of this much hell?’’
The 60-year-old is dying of cancer. With her remaining time she wants to produce a biography of her son, Adam Fisher – a financial adviser killed in the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch.
‘‘You don’t expect to lose your son,’’ Fisher said, before lapsing into a long silence.
Adam Fisher, 27, died in the collapsed PGC Building, along with 17 others. Ten days after the earthquake, before the death had been confirmed, partner Becky Gane gave birth to their second son, Ashton. In 2015, the then-4-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia.
Gaye Fisher came down from Wellington as soon she heard the news, repeating the same sad trip she made after the earthquake. ‘‘It was dreadful. It was like ‘what the hell else does this family have to go through’. He nearly died twice.’’
Ashton finished three years of treatment, including a gruelling initial period of chemotherapy, in August last year. Gane said her son was now completely clear of the disease.
His grandmother is overjoyed at his recovery. ‘‘He’s running around like a real wee boy,’’ Fisher said. ‘‘He’s playing touch, he’s got energy which he’s never had, ever. He’s just being a normal kid.’’
It is the opposite of her own experience. Fisher was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, and had a mastectomy in 2014, the year her father died from myeloma, a type of blood cancer. She was fully cleared last year, but in the interim she received another diagnosis. In 2016, the former mortgage manager – a non-smoker – was coughing up blood. The diagnosis: lung cancer. Fisher started treatment with chemotherapy and radiation therapy that July.
A year later, she was told the cancer was terminal. The tumours had multiplied. Fisher was prescribed a drug called Iressa, fully funded by Pharmac, and she and her partner, Max Hill, moved to Rangiora to be closer to family.
The latest jolt of bad news came last month when a medical scan revealed the tumours had spread to her brain. Fisher was told she had three months to live.
‘‘I’ve accepted everything,’’ she said. ‘‘I can’t fight it. I can’t change it.’’
Fisher is busy making end-oflife arrangements, leaving letters and surprises for her family, planning for her funeral. It is work that gives her a sense of control, and with that peace. However, she also wants to buy more time.
A Givealittle page has been set up to raise money for the drug Osimertinib, used to treat lung cancer with a specific mutation. It is not funded by Pharmac, and costs about $11,000 a month.
With her remaining time, Fisher plans to work with friends to produce a biography about Adam. She wants her grandsons, Jack, 11, and Ashton, 7, to grow up knowing about their dad.
Her son, a keen footballer, was buried near a football field in Rangiora.
‘‘I think Adam’s looking out for them,’’ Fisher said. ‘‘Jack, when it’s a windy day and the clouds are moving, he said ‘there’s daddy blowing the clouds’ so he can see them.’’
For Gane, losing Fisher will be like losing another link to her late partner. ‘‘It’s just one thing after another after another,’’ she said. Her sons both love hearing about Adam.
‘‘Their faces just light up,’’ she said.
Gaye Fisher, afflicted by what she called an environmental cancer, urged people to be conscious of what they consumed, and to live well.
‘‘Live life to the fullest because you don’t know when your number’s up.’’