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Dunedin police officer, former professional Ironman athlete and terminal cancer patient Tamsyn Hayes is battling to raise funds for a treatment that will extend her life. Photo: Supplied <\/p>\nAt 41, Tamsyn Hayes has terminal cancer\u00a0and her Dunedin medical team estimate she only has about three\u00a0months left.<\/p>\n
But the Dunedin police constable and former\u00a0professional Ironman athlete\u00a0is a fighter\u00a0and refuses to give up, because\u00a0she wants more time to make\u00a0memories with\u00a0her 10-year-old daughter Anja.<\/p>\n
Const Hayes said the only way to give herself more time\u00a0was to raise money to buy cancer treatments that are not publicly funded in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Dunedin police officer, former professional Ironman athlete and terminal cancer patient Tamsyn Hayes is battling to raise funds for a treatment that will extend her life. Photo: Supplied <\/p>\n
In 2023, she was\u00a0diagnosed with stage 3, triple-negative breast cancer \u2014\u00a0the most aggressive form of breast cancer.<\/p>\n
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So, with support from her husband Glen,\u00a0she\u00a0went through chemotherapy, immunotherapy, surgeries\u00a0and radiation\u00a0treatment, and was declared \u201cin remission\u201d about a year later.<\/p>\n
She got back to her life\u00a0raising Anja,\u00a0completing\u00a0a couple of half marathons and the 2025 W\u0101naka half Ironman, and working fulltime\u00a0with Dunedin police, the Armed Offenders Squad and the Dignitary\u00a0Protection Service.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was right back into all my sports and my job and continued with life. I felt very healthy. Nothing was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Dunedin police officer, former professional Ironman athlete and terminal cancer patient Tamsyn Hayes is battling to raise funds for a treatment that will extend her life. Photo: Supplied <\/p>\n
But then, in early 2025, a week after completing the half Ironman,\u00a0a regular cancer scan discovered a\u00a0meningioma,\u00a0a non-cancerous tumour\u00a0about the size of a golf ball, on her brain.<\/p>\n
Last November, just\u00a0before she\u00a0was scheduled to have the tumour removed,\u00a0she had \u201ca random pain, sort of running down my leg\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy brain surgeon, because of my history, got an MRI scan of my back to double check everything before he sliced my head open.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd straight away, he found a whole lot of concerning spots on my spine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her surgery was cancelled and she was referred\u00a0back to her oncologist, who told her the cancer was in her spine, and she only had\u00a0about 18 months to live.<\/p>\n
He then sent her for more\u00a0scans that day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen the very next day, when I thought obviously nothing\u00a0could\u00a0get any worse, he said the scans showed I had metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt meant the cancer was not only in my bones, it had spread to\u00a0both my lungs, my liver, my chest, both my adrenal glands\u00a0and some lymph nodes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was everywhere. I was in total shock.\u00a0I was just staring at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought\u00a0I\u2019d already shed enough tears the day before, thinking I only had 18 months left, and\u00a0then\u00a0within 24 hours, he told me\u00a0that with or without treatment, I only had 3-12 months to live.\u201d<\/p>\n
A diagnosis like that would have crushed most people\u2019s will to fight. But not Const Hayes.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people say, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re so strong\u2019, but I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m\u00a0strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s\u00a0probably through my career as a police officer\u00a0and\u00a0my background as an Ironman athlete racing professionally around the world \u2014\u00a0they\u2019re all things that have given me the strength and resilience to fight this battle.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the wake of the diagnosis, she\u00a0started taking a cancer treatment\u00a0that had kept the tumours at bay, but it cost her more than $100,000 because it was not publicly funded in New Zealand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat treatment is standard of care, pretty much around the entire world \u2014 but not\u00a0New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n
More recently, the treatment had stopped working, so she\u00a0is now raising funds to pay for a new unfunded drug \u2014\u00a0Trodelvy \u2014 which is also standard of care overseas.<\/p>\n
Even with discounts from\u00a0the drug company, it is still $20,000 a month.<\/p>\n
She remained focused, but realistic that the money would eventually run out.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I will be on it until either A, it stops working, or B, I pass away.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I\u2019m doing everything I can to try and fight this.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, I\u2019m just trying really hard to raise funds so I can stay on Trodelvy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overseas clinical trials were also a possibility.<\/p>\n
She said the\u00a0main motivation behind\u00a0her fight\u00a0was Anja.<\/p>\n
Their bond was strengthened in 2021, when Const Hayes lost Anja\u2019s little sister during child birth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something about when you\u2019re a mum and you lose\u00a0your daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to do everything I can to be here for Anja, even though it\u2019s horrible treatment and it\u2019s not fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve told her, I will fight until\u00a0my last breath to stay around for her as long as I can, because\u00a0I want her to have as many memories as possible of our life together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to me that my daughter\u00a0knows that her mum tried for as long as she could.\u201d<\/p>\n