Our Why

Why are we doing this? Simply, to honour Nora and to raise funds for the Child Cancer Foundation (CCF).

Striving to touch the sky - that's how Nora lived. She looked for the fun and adventure in her life.

Those of us who knew Nora knew there was something incredibly profound about her. Each of us experienced it differently. Her ability to get along with everyone, her zest for life, her infectious giggle, her willingness to give anything a go, her love of covering people in glitter or her kindness. From the perfect baby to the resilient cancer fighter to the best sister and daughter you could ask for - she just felt different: in an amazing way.

A little of Nora’s story, written by her Mum, Elyse.

In August 2018 our daughter Nora, then 5 years old, was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, cancer of the liver that occurs in 1 in 1 million. Unfortunately, Nora's cancer had spread to her lungs. We had gone to the GP after a few unexplained vomiting incidents with no other symptoms. The time between that visit to the GP and Nora’s diagnosis was 24 hours.

In the 14 months after her diagnosis Nora went through 9 rounds of chemotherapy which caused the usual side effects but it also caused permanent hearing loss, she had 3 surgeries including removing 60% of her liver, her gallbladder and half of one lung. While Nora's liver remained cancer free the cancer continued to reoccur in her lungs. After exhausting all curative treatments in New Zealand we travelled to Houston, Texas where Nora underwent CAR-T cell treatment in a phase 1 trial in which she was patient number 2.

While the treatment in Houston had some huge positive effect on the cancer it ultimately failed only a month after our return to New Zealand. Nora only lived another 2 weeks as her disease progression was a lot faster than anticipated. Her last days were spent very comfortably surrounded by her family, friends and most loved people.

Nora earned 975 beads of courage before she passed away on 1st February 2020 with us, her parents, by her side. She missed her 7th birthday by 10 days. To say we learned a lot from our darling girl is an understatement - we never knew the definition of resilience or how such a beautiful person could have such an effect on so many others. We will forever be grateful she is our daughter but so wish we could have kept her forever.