Givealittle page<\/a>.<\/p>\nAlmost $19,000 had been raised as of Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n
It felt \u201codd\u201d asking for help, but he was \u201cbeyond grateful\u201d to those who had donated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know what the sort of timeframe is on Melissa\u2019s cancer … once she stops working, it\u2019ll just help with just the day-to-day expenses and being on one wage and trying to manage work and look after Grayson at the same time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t work any more hours than I am, really. I\u2019m only getting about … two, three hours sleep a night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foster-Nesbit said her half-brother had been \u201ccarrying the weight\u201d of being a provider, caregiver, and partner.<\/p>\n
She hoped the money raised would mean he could work less and spend more time with Melissa and Grayson.<\/p>\n
Melissa\u2019s cancer fight <\/p>\n
Melissa, 55, said she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 after finding a lump in her left breast. She had a lumpectomy.<\/p>\n
A mammogram last year revealed the cancer had returned, and she had a mastectomy.<\/p>\n
She then began experiencing \u201coff and on\u201d body aches, which she attributed to menopause and high cortisol.<\/p>\n
In December, Melissa discovered the pain was caused by cancer in her bones. It had metastasised, and she was told it was \u201cincurable\u201d.<\/p>\n
Her MRI scan results \u201clooked like a Christmas tree\u201d with the cancer showing up as \u201clittle white lights\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Tauranga]()
Tauranga mother Melissa Tarawa, who has incurable breast cancer, and her husband Verron Tarawa.<\/p>\n
Melissa said she was taking oral treatment, which would \u201clock it into the bone\u201d and prevent it from spreading further.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf my body is receptive to this, which so far it is, then we will stay this way until the cancer is on the move again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her hope was to live like this for \u201cyears\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we do have to be realistic … we can only hold it back for so long, and it will move.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always hopeful, because at the end of the day it\u2019s all I\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melissa, who owns hairdressing business Cuts on Cameron, said she worked daily but her hours depended on her health.<\/p>\n
She said Verron was \u201cbeing Superman\u201d. Grayson had \u201cthe mind of a 4-year-old\u201d and \u201cdoesn\u2019t sleep at night\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said Verron was looking after Grayson at night and working on minimal sleep.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe likes me to get the night sleep, which I\u2019m very grateful for, but I do wish I could help him more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melissa was grateful for the \u201cincredibly humbling\u201c support from the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful also to my husband, who\u2019s got the world on his shoulders right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melissa said people asked her, \u201cwhat sort of outcome do I want\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to be honest … Verron and I have had to handle the fact that one day we will bury our son.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing that I can hope for is I will outlive our son, so that I don\u2019t leave [Verron] to do this on his own. It\u2019s just too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Megan Wilson<\/a> is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In March last year, Verron said, Grayson was diagnosed with \u201cincurable and progressive\u201d kidney disease. Nine months later,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[52085,2831,17772,2534,8615,8414,7191,4527,1872,6119,9881,43893,2209,180311,305,134,3012,10109,75747,2255,11556,74216,180310,111,139,69,5270,180312,5429,56426,22639,180309,1227,39545,1361,165,61,180308,1842,1533,102],"class_list":["post-336606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-10yearold","tag-breast","tag-bury","tag-cancer","tag-come","tag-couple","tag-disease","tag-doesnt","tag-face","tag-faces","tag-facing","tag-fact","tag-father","tag-grayson","tag-have","tag-health","tag-hopes","tag-husband","tag-incurable","tag-kidney","tag-losing","tag-melissa","tag-metastatic","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-one","tag-outlive","tag-own","tag-progressive","tag-son","tag-tarawa","tag-tauranga","tag-terms","tag-that","tag-their","tag-to","tag-verron","tag-wife","tag-will","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}