\u201cI was living the dream, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, while celebrating Aurora\u2019s birthday with family, Kerrison found a small but painful lump in her abdomen.<\/p>\n
Having spent months recovering physically from pregnancy, she instinctively knew something had changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was new, and it hadn\u2019t been there for very long.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just had this gut feeling that something wasn\u2019t right.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lump that changed everything<\/p>\n
The lump appeared to be growing quickly, prompting her to seek medical advice as soon as she returned home.<\/p>\n
What followed was weeks of scans, referrals, biopsies and uncertainty.<\/p>\n
An initial ultrasound suggested the lump was likely a haematoma rather than cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went out and celebrated for dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Days later, a senior radiologist reviewed the scan and raised concerns that it could be sarcoma, a rare group of cancers that develop in bone and soft tissue.<\/p>\n
About six weeks after first finding the lump, Kerrison received the news that changed everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had that sit-down talk and was told, \u2018You have sarcoma. You have cancer\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doctors did not yet know the tumour\u2019s exact subtype or prognosis, with tissue samples requiring analysis in laboratories across New Zealand and Australia before a diagnosis could be confirmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was shattering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerrison said sarcoma was one of New Zealand\u2019s deadliest cancers, with almost one in three patients not surviving beyond five years. <\/p>\n
Despite disproportionately affecting children, teenagers and young adults, it receives less than 1% of cancer research funding across Australia and New Zealand, Kerrison said.<\/p>\n
For Kerrison, however, there was only one thought that mattered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thought of my daughter growing up without her mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had just turned 1, and she wouldn\u2019t even remember me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerrison said early detection could make a significant difference to outcomes. Photo \/ Tom Eley<\/p>\n
Fighting for the future<\/p>\n
That fear became her motivation.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery waking second was spent researching studies, exploring treatment options, changing my diet and learning everything I could.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to give it everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple moved back to Cambridge after the diagnosis to be close to family, she said.<\/p>\n
Kerrison was eventually diagnosed with a desmoid tumour, a subtype treated through sarcoma services. Although technically classified as benign, it behaved aggressively.<\/p>\n
Within months, it had tripled in size.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became life-threatening.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tumour left her in constant pain and increasingly disabled.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the end of it I couldn\u2019t really bend or move without extreme amounts of pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
After exhausting other options, Kerrison underwent urgent surgery.<\/p>\n
She credits her surgical team with saving both her life and her future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I was going to lose my career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I might not be able to get down on the floor and play with my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
A message that could save lives<\/p>\n
Today, Kerrison has no evidence of disease and is advocating for the Australia and New Zealand Sarcoma Association (Anzsa) to raise awareness of the disease, which she says many New Zealanders are unaware of.<\/p>\n
Anzsa chief executive Dr Denise Caruso said progress in sarcoma treatment was being made, but it was hard work.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery advance in sarcoma treatment represents years of work, millions of dollars in investment and the determination of patients, clinicians and researchers who refuse to give up,\u201d Caruso said.<\/p>\n
Medical oncologist Dr Joanna Connor said awareness remained one of the biggest challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cSarcoma is uncommon, which means it\u2019s not always front-of-mind for clinicians or the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo often, sarcoma is mistaken for a sports injury or growing pains. That rarity creates a dangerous gap \u2013 one where symptoms are overlooked and diagnosis is delayed. Awareness is not just helpful; it\u2019s lifesaving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Health New Zealand\u2019s director of the National Clinical Networks, Mary Cleary-Lyons, said sarcoma required highly specialised multidisciplinary care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working hard to provide better care for all patients with cancer, including sarcoma,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that due to capacity constraints, we sometimes fall short of the level of care we would aspire to deliver. We always prioritise based on clinical need and work hard to minimise adverse impacts on patients that might arise from delays.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cleary-Lyons said sending tissue samples overseas for analysis was standard practice when New Zealand lacked the specialist expertise or laboratory capacity.<\/p>\n
For Kerrison, the message she hoped people would take away from her story was simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one knows your body better than yourself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf something doesn\u2019t feel right, get it checked. If you\u2019re not being listened to, get a second opinion. If you need a third, fourth or fifth opinion, do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSarcoma is one of our deadliest cancers, yet most people have never heard of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf sharing my story helps one person get checked earlier, then it\u2019s worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. Before he joined the Hamilton-based team, he worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive. He previously worked as a journalist at Black Press Media in Canada and won a fellowship with the Vancouver Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI was living the dream, honestly.\u201d Then, while celebrating Aurora\u2019s birthday with family, Kerrison found a small but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[34262,32714,74,95,1408,16659,2534,6186,2511,11557,797,796,14647,299,213878,5821,1888,15658,134,138705,252668,22055,424,89195,4188,39839,4486,30504,111,139,69,5202,8205,5389,180,427,6290,107,61,66416,41653,6923,102,379],"class_list":["post-506693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-abdomen","tag-adele","tag-after","tag-and","tag-awareness","tag-cambridge","tag-cancer","tag-changed","tag-child","tag-describes","tag-diagnosed","tag-diagnosis","tag-discovered","tag-dream","tag-eley","tag-everything","tag-first","tag-gut","tag-health","tag-instinct","tag-kerrison","tag-leads","tag-life","tag-lifesaving","tag-living","tag-lump","tag-month","tag-mums","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-part","tag-rare","tag-sarcoma","tag-shares","tag-story","tag-surgery","tag-then","tag-to","tag-type","tag-welcoming","tag-what","tag-with","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506693","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=506693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}