The cost and logistics of travelling to Tauranga for cancer treatments have some patients in the Eastern Bay of Plenty “compromising” their fight, the Cancer Society says.

That is why the organisation’s “mighty dream” is to build a facility near Tauranga Hospital providing meals, accommodation, and appointment transport similar to the Cancer Society’s Lion’s Lodge in Hamilton.

But it says raising funds and finding land is “challenging”.

The idea has the backing of Kawerau cancer patient Julie Kelly after having weeks of treatment at Tauranga Hospital.

The lodge in Hamilton - which hosts patients receiving treatment at Waikato Hospital - accommodated 2574 guests in the 2023/24 financial year, a 38 per cent increase year on year.

It hosted 1857 guests in the 2022/2023 financial year, and 731 guests in the 2018/2019 financial year.

‘So much easier on my family’

Kelly, 61, says she was diagnosed with rectal cancer in May and started treatment in June. She had six-and-a-half weeks of radiation and “a couple of bouts” of chemotherapy at Tauranga Hospital.

She says the Cancer Society provided her with meals and transport to and from the hospital while Health NZ’s National Travel Assistance Scheme covered her accommodation at a Greerton motel.

This support meant the ordeal was “so much easier on my family”.

“You feel pretty miserable – I was quite happy to go back to the motel and just lay on my bed because I was pretty sore.”

The mother-of-three stayed at the motel by herself. Her daughter would drive her more than an hour to Tauranga on a Monday and pick her up on a Friday.

Kawerau woman Julie Kelly was diagnosed with rectal cancer in May 2024.

If there had been a lodge in Tauranga, she might have stayed on the weekends rather than going home, she says.

“You do start to feel a bit lonely and sorry for yourself because you’re pretty sore and crook. But you sort of just rise above it because you don’t have any choice.”

Other cancer patients stayed at the motel and Kelly enjoyed the comradeship with them, she says.

She says having the support of other cancer patients “when you aren’t feeling so flash” and being able to support others would be some of the benefits of a lodge.

Kelly – who had “wonderful care” from the Cancer Society – thinks there will be huge support for a lodge to be built in Tauranga.

Patients choosing not to have treatment due to travel costs

Information from the Cancer Society on the services it provides to people diagnosed with cancer in the Bay of Plenty, include transport for treatment appointments, one meal a day for a patient and support person, advice and guidance from an experienced nurse, access to support groups, counselling and massages.

Cancer Society Waikato/Bay of Plenty chief executive Helen Carter says about 1600 people in the Bay are diagnosed with cancer every year.

People with cancer who live in Whakatāne, Ōpōtiki and other more rural areas in the Eastern Bay of Plenty often struggle with the costs and logistics associated with getting treatment, she says.

“We come across families who contemplate or make the decision not to continue treatment because of the cost of getting to Tauranga and then staying there for several weeks.

“It’s really important to provide the facility near the treatment centre to give people the opportunity to keep on track with their treatment without the financial burden, with the love and care, with the meals, with the environment that means the only thing they have to worry about it is fighting cancer.

Cancer Society Waikato/Bay of Plenty chief executive Helen Carter.

She says some people are “compromising” on fighting cancer as they worry about costs and logistics.

“It’s just not acceptable to us but it is a mighty dream to pull off a substantial project like a new facility.”

Building a facility in Tauranga has been a goal for “quite some time” but the last two years has been “really challenging” financially and economically, she says.

Carter has been working towards pulling together the “glorious trifecta” of the “right land in the right place near Tauranga Hospital at the right price or, ideally, gifted”.

“And then, on top of that, we need the right partners and funders who share our vision and have a passion for supporting people outside of Tauranga that have to travel in ... or contribute in other ways.

She said finding the right land near Tauranga Hospital was “like pulling a rabbit out of a hat”.

“But we will do it. Because we have to, because it’s needed.”

Carter says investment for a building such as this is “very much a community-driven effort” and is not a Government-funded project.

Modelling shows a facility of 12 to 14 bedrooms with an ensuite would meet current demand, but a 20-bedroom facility would ideally be built “in a perfect world”, she says.

Friday was Daffodil Day - the Cancer Society’s largest fundraiser - with volunteers across the region collecting donations.

Health NZ has been approached for comment.

-Bay of Plenty Times.