“Lotomau is my name, or Lotto for short. Not that I’ve ever won the lottery, though,” Lotto laughs heartily. “I’m from Samoa, and I used to work in the telecom industry.”
“When I was 15, I fell from a mango tree in Samoa. Since then, I’ve had problems with my hip. I needed to have a hip replacement in Samoa in 1988.”
Three years later, in 1991, Lotto moved to New Zealand. When he arrived here, he looked for a job in the telecom industry. “But New Zealand’s telecoms were in the process of becoming privatised and it was hard to find work. So I got a job in the wiring industry instead… but then I was laid off after seven months.” Struggling to find ways to make ends meet and provide for his wife and five children, Lotto looked at other options. He decided to start his own taxi business. He used the money from his redundancy package to buy a taxi, began driving and made a decent living. He eventually moved on to driving buses in 2006, after his kids had grown up.
On the surface, things were finally looking up for Lotto. “But I still had a hip problem. I was limping. That whole time, I was still dealing with a sore hip. I ended up going to have a checkup on it, because the joint I had from my operation in Samoa had started to wear out.”
Lotto remembers vividly the day that everything changed. “It was in 2016, and I was driving the bus – and when I started work, I was sharp as – but later that morning, I bent down to grab a coin that had fallen on the bus floor. And I felt a snap in my back. It was really painful.” Lotto tried to keep going and finish his shift – but by lunchtime, he couldn’t take it anymore. His back was so sore he couldn’t drive. He went to his doctor, who gave him painkillers and sent him home. But by that night, he couldn’t even walk. The next morning, he was in so much pain that even getting out of bed seemed impossible. “I reached out of my bed and shook the shelf with my phone on it, so it would fall for me to pick up, and I rang 111. An ambulance came and took me to the hospital.”
After three weeks of tests, the hospital doctors finally diagnosed Lotto with myeloma. “I remember the doctors telling me about the treatment, but I told them that I needed some time to think about it. I was crying so much, I felt like that was the end of the world for me.”
“When you hear the word ‘cancer’, you just think you’re not going to live anymore… I didn’t know what to do with myself. But I agreed to go with the treatment in the end.”
Lotto was put on radiation treatment for a week and a half. This was followed by chemotherapy which was injected into his stomach. Finally, he was put on the waiting list to receive a stem cell transplant – which he received in 2016. “I was really weak, and my hair started to fall out. My teeth fell out, too. I have hardly any left now. And when I was going through the blood regeneration process, I couldn’t eat. I lost about 14kg. I couldn’t work anymore, and I had to learn how to walk again, too.”
It was hard for Lotto, who was used to working hard and keeping himself busy with projects. “I’m not the type of person who likes to just sit around and do nothing. I’m always outside looking for things to do – painting, gardening; doing what needs to be done.”
Despite the challenges of treatment, Lotto appreciates the people who looked after him in hospital. “Everybody, in every department – radiation, chemo – the staff were all awesome. I have no complaints!” Thankfully he also had support from people like Tim, from LBC, who visited Lotto at home and gave him encouragement throughout his journey. Lotto knew Tim was always available for a chat if he needed it. But Lotto is most grateful for his family.
“My wife dropped everything when she found out about my diagnosis. On the morning I first went to hospital – my son came home and I wasn’t there, and hadn’t left a message for him. He rang around every single hospital in Auckland until he found me.”
Lotto hasn’t been dealt the easiest cards in life. But he has a loving family, a roof over his head and a wife that has never left his side. Just as importantly, Lotto has hope he can get back to living the life he wants. “I think I can overcome this.”