RJ\u2019s sister, Jodie Woodman, said he was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma a month after his mother had her own terminal cancer confirmed. Ewing sarcoma is a group of rare cancerous tumours in the bones or soft tissues.<\/p>\n
SZA and RJ Abood struck up a friendship after meeting in early 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just so unbelievable that it happened,\u201d said Woodman of the devastating double diagnoses.<\/p>\n
RJ responded well to treatment and went into remission. \u201cHe got to ring the bell,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But while on a camping trip in December 2023, months after his mother\u2019s death, he started experiencing bad hip pain.<\/p>\n
SZA on stage at the 2025 American Music Awards. Photo \/ Christopher Polk, Penske Media<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took him back to the hospital and we found out his cancer had spread all through his body and it was basically terminal at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n
RJ declined to join in clinical trials, not wanting to put himself through further suffering for something that might not work. He had chemo and radiation to prolong his life.<\/p>\n
He and Woodman engaged with the palliative care team, led by Dr Amanda Evans, who is one of only two such specialists in the country.<\/p>\n
Evans\u2019 goal is to give children the best deaths possible, including doing all she can to improve their final days and months. Evans told the Herald the way RJ felt after befriending SZA was \u201cso much better than any medication that I could provide him\u201d.<\/p>\n
Woodman explained RJ loved the singer and wanted to go to her concert in Auckland in early 2024.<\/p>\n
Jodie Woodman (left) said her brother RJ was overwhelmed and excited to become friends with SZA.<\/p>\n
Evans, who had contacts in the music industry, \u201cwas able to pull a few strings and get him a meet and greet with her\u201d, Woodman said.<\/p>\n
The teen went backstage and spent time with SZA in a VIP area, coming home with her wig that she had gifted him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis world had been made, he was ecstatic, he just couldn\u2019t believe that that actually happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was overwhelmed with excitement. I loved seeing that for him, especially given the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woodman believed the pair had clicked because of RJ\u2019s fun personality.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe just liked the type of person he was,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRJ was a bit sassy. He had style. He just had this aura about him … I think they just gelled.\u201d<\/p>\n
SZA then invited him to join her on a visit to a marae the next day and struck up a friendship with him, sending messages to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just like, he couldn\u2019t believe that he was actually in contact with her and sort of had a personal relationship,\u201d Woodman said. \u201cHe was really humbled by it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he was like, \u2018What is my life, I\u2019m really chatting to a superstar\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woodman says SZA had plans to fly RJ to Los Angeles so he could have In-N-Out Burger with her on the beach. The family went as far as renewing RJ\u2019s passport, only for him to become too ill to travel.<\/p>\n
\u201cRJ was rapidly declining,\u201d Woodman said.<\/p>\n
SZA wanted to do a video call with RJ in his last days but he was too unwell and died in late August 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had messaged her the morning RJ had passed away. She ended up giving me a call and sending her condolences. She was really sincere, just lovely. I couldn\u2019t believe she called. She actually offered to pay for his funeral.\u201d<\/p>\n
RJ was “sassy” and had style, his sister says.<\/p>\n
Woodman said she was \u201cgobsmacked\u201d at the offer and initially too shy to accept. Her family encouraged her to accept it and she agreed to let SZA pay for RJ\u2019s funeral home costs.<\/p>\n
A few months after his death, SZA messaged Woodman, sharing a photo of a bracelet RJ had given her, which she kept in her home.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the experience gave Woodman comfort, particularly as it meant she got to talk about her beloved brother more.<\/p>\n
She was full of praise for Evans\u2019 team and what they had done to support RJ at the end of his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey really went above and beyond for RJ. Just the care and effort they put in with RJ, it just made the journey that much easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Health NZ\u2019s acting director of living well, Astuti Balram, has acknowledged there are areas where the public health system could do better over access to palliative care.<\/p>\n
The National Palliative Care Work Programme had considered more than 2100 submissions since 2023 for more nationally consistent models of palliative care.<\/p>\n
RJ died in August 2024, less than a year after his mother also died of cancer.<\/p>\n
Health NZ was finalising new paediatric and adult models of care and its next step was to develop an implementation plan and a rollout timeframe, Balram said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are committed to improving access to palliative care so that every person, regardless of where they live, can receive the care they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Herald has contacted SZA\u2019s record label for comment.<\/p>\n
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice, and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 12 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RJ\u2019s sister, Jodie Woodman, said he was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma a month after his mother had her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[205338,46794,7972,1558,205335,3595,536,42834,156,222,564,305,8788,1019,31993,194,5829,111,139,69,1118,205336,205337,4913,1962,2737,25269,5163,47066,8229,3040,32561],"class_list":["post-397433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-abood","tag-angeles","tag-beach","tag-been","tag-befriended","tag-by","tag-care","tag-dying","tag-entertainment","tag-fast","tag-food","tag-have","tag-highlights","tag-international","tag-invited","tag-kiwi","tag-many","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-paediatric","tag-palliative","tag-pop","tag-special","tag-star","tag-sza","tag-teen","tag-teenagers","tag-they","tag-us","tag-value"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397433","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=397433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}