After a shock cancer diagnosis and an unforgettable phone call delivering the all-clear, Motueka’s Lois McTaggart has turned gratitude into action – walking 75km and raising more than $2,000 for the Cancer Society ahead of this month’s Nelson Tasman Relay For Life.
Words: Catherine Milford
This month, Lois McTaggart, as part of a team of women from her hometown of Motueka called the Pink Bits, will take to the streets of Nelson at Relay For Life, a powerful community event run by the Nelson Tasman Cancer Society.
Held at Richmond A&P Showgrounds, the event will celebrate and honour those who have had cancer, to remember loved ones lost to the disease, and to raise awareness and funds for the society. It’s one of the biggest fundraisers on the Cancer Society’s calendar, and includes a celebration afternoon tea, a relay and an evening candlelight remembrance ceremony, with live entertainment, food, movies, a silent disco and more.
The action-packed event means the world to Lois, and to many like her – because she is one of the 600-plus locals who have been supported by Cancer Society Nelson Tasman in the past 12 months after receiving a cancer diagnosis.
When she retired in 2020, Lois was looking forward to enjoying a little more free time at her Motueka home, where she’s lived for the past 26 years. It never occurred to her that four years later, the former nurse and midwife, and keen walker and writer, would be told she had cancer.
“I was symptom-free, and I hadn’t had any experience with cancer so it came as quite a surprise,” admits Lois. “It’s not something I’d ever thought about.”
Lois had surgery at Nelson Hospital to have the lesion removed, and was sent home to recover. But a week later, she received a phone call that changed everything.
“I’ll never forget that call,” she says. “Hamish Kerr had just won the gold medal for high jump in the Paris Olympics, and I got a call from one of the surgeons who had been taking care of me.
“He told me the team had had a multi-disciplinary meeting about my case, and he had been selected to phone me to let me know that the lesion was completely gone. All my lymph nodes were clear, and I was completely cancer-free.”
The surgeon told Lois the decision had been made to tell her the good news as quickly as possible so she could relax and have a good weekend. “I thought that was incredible of them – I mean, how amazing was that? I felt like I’d won a gold medal myself.”
Lois told the surgeon she’d be jumping up and down herself if she could. “It was fantastic – you don’t expect a call at ten to seven on a Friday night from a busy professional who just wanted to give me the gift of a good weekend.”
Despite still being fragile from the surgery the previous week, Lois enjoyed a quiet celebratory afternoon tea with family and friends. It wasn’t long though, before an idea began to form.
“I feel like I had excellent care from the moment I was diagnosed – at Nelson Hospital, with the Cancer Society, everywhere,” she explains. “Our healthcare system might be under a lot of stress, but my experience taught me that our practitioners care very deeply about their patients. Their commitment on the front line is extraordinary, and I felt it needed to be recognised.
“When you get a cancer diagnosis, you discover a vulnerability you were not aware of before, and you discover just how wonderful the people in the system are in providing that care,” she adds. “Before I was diagnosed, I had no idea what the Nelson Cancer Society did. They do so much work for people at all stages of their cancer journey, and there’s no charge for any of it. They provide counselling, take people to appointments if they don’t have transport, there’s support activities and morning teas – it’s fantastic.
Lois has turned her hand to giving back before; in 2020, when she finished work, she farewelled her career by walking 70km to fundraise for post-natal depression – a walk that raised over $3,000.
“I originally started walking as a way to control my asthma, but when I finished my job as a nurse and midwife, which I always felt was more of a vocation than a career, it became a way for me to pay something back,” she says.
“I divided the 70km walk up into 10km lots. I found it really inspiring because the cause was worthwhile. I wanted to do the same thing for the Cancer Society because I wanted to pay it back somehow once I got back on my feet.”
So in 2025, Lois set herself a goal to walk 75km and raise $1,500 for the Cancer Society. She divided the walks into manageable 10km sections over four months, walking from Richmond to Brightwater, Motueka to Jester House, local Motueka community walks, and even 10km sections of the Buller Half Marathon and the Nelson Half Marathon. She also set up a fundraising spot outside local shops in Motueka, Tākaka, Tapawera, Riwaka, Appleby, Wakefield and Māpua.
“I felt so privileged while I was fundraising, because I got to talk to other people who shared their own cancer stories with me,” she says. “I remember driving home from Brightwater feeling quite emotional. Doing these walks has never been about me; it’s always been about giving back, so to be trusted with other people’s stories was very special.”
Lois’ commitment led to her beating her initial target, raising a total of $2,085.80. But it also led to something entirely unexpected on a personal level, too – a burst of creativity. Having earned a diploma in journalism while living in Vancouver Island in Canada, Lois has continued to write as a hobby over the years.
“But on my first walk, down to Toad Hall in Motueka, I suddenly started singing!” she says. “I thought – if anyone hears me, they are going to think I’ve gone crazy!
“The song I was singing came from nowhere. When I got home, I wanted to develop it so I turned it into a poem, which turned into a song again when I put it to music. I’ve never done that before. I’ve written poetry, but never a song – and I’ve certainly never started singing on a walk before!”
Lois puts her revitalised artistic streak down to the feelings of immense gratitude to the team who helped her through her cancer journey.
“Getting cancer, and going through the surgery, changed me,” she says. “It caused me to realise that as humans we are vulnerable – things can change in an instant. But how we manage that change, and how we move forward, is incredibly important. I believe challenges allow us to learn, to grow and to become. That’s a belief I live by.”
Lois feels her cancer diagnosis has been as much an opportunity as a challenge. “Doing the walk, and being able to fundraise for the Cancer Society, happened as a consequence of a serious health journey,” she says. “I consider myself very fortunate to have benefited from the help the Cancer Society provide, and I will always be grateful to the people who provide such incredible care. It’s an honour and a privilege to help fundraise for them.”
Relay For Life Nelson Tasman – 14-15 March 2026
To find out more about the March Nelson Tasman Relay For Life, visit nelsontasman.relayforlife.org.nz/
