Nicole White was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour shortly after turning 17. Photo \/ TNR Protography<\/p>\n
On November 14, White will run the Queenstown Marathon, aiming to raise $10,000 for Brain Tumour Support NZ.<\/p>\n
\u201cRunning has always been my outlet,\u201d White said,<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was diagnosed with this brain tumour when I was 17, you know, there were some really dark moments. I could just go out for a run, put some headphones in, disconnect from the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels kind of like a good full-circle moment to bring it back to running and, you know, to do this marathon as the fundraiser.\u201d<\/p>\n
For White, the fundraiser is about shining a light on an organisation she says has played an important role supporting people living with brain tumours and their families.<\/p>\n
Nicole White hopes to raise $10,000 for Brain Tumour Support NZ through the marathon. Photo \/ TNR Protography<\/p>\n
White said Brain Tumour Support NZ was an \u201camazing organisation\u201d, and their advocacy often goes under the radar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do so much for us brain tumour survivors as well as brain tumour survivor families as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are doing all this advocacy in the background that often doesn\u2019t get recognised. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are pushing for new medications to be funded throughout New Zealand for people suffering from brain tumours \u2013 that just kind of doesn\u2019t really happen in its own steam.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so grateful for that support and, you know, they are the core of whole fundraiser for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
For White, the marathon also represents that people are more than a diagnosis. <\/p>\n
Nicole White has had four brain surgeries and two types of chemotherapy and radiation. Photo \/ TNR Protography<\/p>\n
It is also a reminder of how far she has come since her diagnosis at 17, and of the importance of not illness to define her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hear somebody who\u2019s battling cancer and you have this preconceived idea of what that looks like.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was first diagnosed, I had that preconceived idea of what that looked like in my brain that, you know, I was going to lose my hair and I was going to be really sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack yourself and be like, actually no, I can do stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis illness does not define who I am, and for me personally, it was always like, this isn\u2019t going to take away from what I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, White also shared other ways to support people going through a cancer battle. <\/p>\n
\u201cMoney\u2019s really hard push for everyone in this economy, so there\u2019s other ways that people can help,\u201d White said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about having those conversations, you know, those uncomfortable conversations that I think are so important. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you know somebody that\u2019s going through this journey, have those uncomfortable conversations.<\/p>\n
\u201cNine times out of 10, the person who\u2019s going through that journey actually wants to talk about it, but they don\u2019t want to be the one to bring it up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s kind of what this whole campaign is about is about – raising awareness to these illnesses. I just encourage everyone to really look after each other really at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those wanting to support White can do so by visiting the \u2018Why Not Me?” Facebook page. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicole White was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour shortly after turning 17. Photo \/ TNR Protography On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13916,1596,28447,156,2082,11691,33031,111,139,2722,11515,69,4517,20930,8145,66407,1886,61,21733,1316,16550,27630,1530],"class_list":["post-624941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-asked","tag-brain","tag-describe","tag-entertainment","tag-for","tag-greymouth","tag-marathon","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nicole","tag-nurse","tag-nz","tag-past","tag-queenstown","tag-run","tag-sums","tag-support","tag-to","tag-tumour","tag-when","tag-white","tag-word","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624941","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=624941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}