Renee's story
Caring for the next person
Renee Holmes was a vibrant twenty-five-year-old living it up in London, when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma.
She began to feel like something was not quite right and went to the hospital. It took ten weeks for Renee to be diagnosed.
Renee says that being “flicked” from one doctor to the next in a South London hospital was by far the most frustrating part of her journey. She says: “I knew something was wrong, but nobody could tell me what.”
It was her good friend’s father, a New Zealand oncologist, who finally 'diagnosed' Renee in the pub!
He encouraged her to go back to the hospital, get a decent biopsy and to go home to New Zealand to have treatment.
On 4 November 2004, Renee received her diagnosis. Two weeks later, with her biopsy slides in her carry-on luggage, Renee returned home to New Zealand with a diagnosis of stage 2B Hodgkin lymphoma.
Welcomed warmly into the arms of Auckland's Oncology unit, she met with Dr. David Porter.
Dr. Porter confirmed her diagnosis. Right away, he started Renee on a six-month course of ABVD chemotherapy and four weeks of radiotherapy.
Finally, in July 2005 Renee was given the all clear. The treatment had worked and she then began her very long road back to recovery.
Today a children’s community nurse, Renee says: “Survivorship is by far the biggest gift I have ever received. It's no easy feat; there have been many ups and downs.
“Lance Armstrong said it perfectly, 'we are the lucky ones'; its something I can't explain, but that feels right to say.”
Renee wants people to know that survivors have a story to tell. They have a story that told, can change one person’s perception – be it a doctor, a mother, a nurse, a friend...anyone, who might just push someone with “something not quite right” in the right direction; so that patient can survive to help the next person.
She says: “It's about support and caring for the next person, but also supporting and caring for fellow survivors and their families.”
In October 2009 Renee was officially cleared and discharged from Auckland Hospital’s oncology/haematology service. She says: “The word I like to play with is 'cured'! It is a really great feeling not to have to walk back into clinic ever again.”
