Games fair raises awareness and funds
Melanie Raye and Amy Botha were inseparable from their very first meeting at high school, where their classmates regularly confused them for each other.
Theirs was a special bond that lasted for years, until Amy died from an aggressive secondary cancer in January.
Now Melanie is attending the Cancer Society Games Fair at the Cloud in Auckland on April 29 and 30 to play in memory of her best friend. The weekend of tabletop gaming is back for a second year after the success of last year and aims to raise awareness and funds for so many New Zealanders like Melanie and Amy who have been impacted by cancer.
The Cloud will be transformed into a tabletop haven with all kinds of games including board games, Dungeons & Dragons, card games and Warhammer.
Melanie likes to remember the good times she shared with Amy before and after Amy’s cancer diagnosis: ‘‘The way we met was quite unique. We both went to the same high school, and about three weeks before we met people started calling me Amy from behind or the side.
‘‘Three weeks later this girl walks into worship band practice who looks so much like me. I went straight over to her and said, ‘You have to be Amy.’ She was like, ‘And you’re Melanie’!’’
The spark was lit under the pair from the very beginning.
They started hanging out together all the time and at every lunch break at school. Years of adventures followed, with Amy’s spontaneity balancing Melanie’s need for order and organisation.
A special memory was an impromptu camping trip in the middle of winter after the pair found old camping gear in a shed belonging to Amy’s Dad. Amy was even able to be Melanie’s maid of honour, wearing a beautiful headpiece that looked like real hair.
Amy’s diagnosis came as a shock to everyone.
Initially the cancer was in her bowel, but it spread to her liver, and she needed two surgeries but they did not get rid of the cancer. In December, she was moved into hospital, then a hospice, where she died on January 19, a week after Melanie visited her for the final time, where Melanie sang to Amy at Amy’s request, something she will never forget.
Melanie says, ‘‘Amy was so compassionate and warm. Everyone who knew her talked about how genuine she was and how kind she was to everyone. I knew the girl 18 years and I never heard her say a bad word about anyone’’.
Amy loved playing games and her favourites were word games. She was good at Scrabble, Boggle and Bananagrams and liked Articulate as well. She even played Disney Trivial Pursuit with Melanie a few times, knowing ahead of time that Melanie would ‘‘kick her butt’’.
Tabletop gaming was something Melanie and Amy could still do together even when Amy was unwell.