“I’m a half-Fijian indigenous woman – my mum’s Fijian and my dad is Kiwi German,” Daphne tells me. She’s at the Wellington dance studio she runs with her partner, Pat. Music is playing in the background, and she moves to a quiet space so we can talk.
Aside from God and her family – including Pat and their two children – Daphne’s biggest love is dance. “I’ve been teaching dance for about the last five years, but I’ve been dancing for over 15 years.”
She and Pat run their studio part-time alongside other jobs. At Daphne’s “day job”, she’s a healthcare assistant at the Wellington Blood and Cancer Centre – something she still finds pretty surreal, considering she was once a patient there.
“I’m really passionate about it – truly – I’m so grateful to go to work every day. I’ve only been there a year and have already had so many life-changing moments and get to work with the most incredible people.”
Daphne knew for a long time that she wanted to make a difference for cancer patients (especially young people going through cancer), but after going through her own journey with blood cancer, it took time to process what had happened and clarify what exactly this might look like.
Now in her thirties, Daphne was just 25 when her journey with lymphoma began. “I was really, really busy with dance at the time. I think the first red flag I noticed was when I was doing performances – I remember these two gigs where I was almost crawling off stage, just from those two-minute performances. I knew something was wrong.”
She visited her GP and was diagnosed with a sinus infection. But over the next six months, more unusual symptoms began to crop up. “I was way more tired than usual. And I had these crazy night sweats – I remember one night when I woke up and had to change the whole bed. I was losing a lot of weight and dropped down to 52 kilograms.”
Although she hadn’t been well, she managed to attend a friend’s wedding in November. “It was an amazing night. But I got home quite late and then started to feel a very severe pain in my side from the early hours of the morning.”
Daphne still made it to dance rehearsal that evening. “All the dancers looked at me, like, ‘Oh my God, what is wrong with you?’” Her friends drove her straight to the nearest afterhours clinic. She had some blood tests done and was sent home with painkillers.
“I got home, and literally an hour later, I got a phone call from the Wellington Hospital Emergency Department. They said, ‘We’ve just got your blood results and we need you to come straight here. We’re waiting for you.’”
Daphne was shocked. She headed straight to the hospital and was met with a barrage of tests. “It was just this blur – I got admitted, and for the next four days, all I remember was that they were ruling out one thing after the other, trying to get to the bottom of what it was.”
An ultrasound and CT scan revealed three large masses, and after a biopsy was taken, Daphne was sent home to await the results. “I still didn’t know at that point that it could be cancerous.”
In January, Daphne was back at Wellington Hospital for an appointment with a haematologist. “She said, ‘You probably don’t know why you’re here. We got the results back and we have a diagnosis for you, and it’s cancer.’ But she explained about the type of lymphoma it was – nodular sclerosing Hodgkin lymphoma – and that it’s one of the more treatable ones.”
After a couple of weeks of more tests, Daphne was started on six months of ABVD chemotherapy. Knowing she would probably lose her hair, Daphne took control and ran a fundraising event where she and her loved ones all shaved their heads. “So, I did that before my hair could fall out. But I did get really bad nausea, and I had bad skin problems with folliculitis.”
Daphne was supported through this difficult time by her local LBC Support Service Coordinators. As well as visiting her in the hospital and inviting her along to her local LBC support group, they also helped to connect Daphne with some other young blood cancer patients, including a young man with leukaemia called Kurt. The two became good friends, but Kurt tragically passed away in 2010 after relapsing. “He actually made a documentary about his blood cancer before he passed – it’s called ‘In My Blood’. It’s very powerful.”
And although treatment was tough, Daphne attributes a big part of her recovery to her partner, mum and friends – as well as her love of dance, and the fact she continued with it throughout her journey. “I remember I asked my haematologist, ‘Am I still gonna be able to dance?’ And she said, ‘You do what is going to make you happy. As long as you feel up to it and you have time to recuperate after chemo days, then absolutely.’”
“Dance saved me – it’s in my blood, just like Kurt said.”
Now more than a decade on, Daphne is healthier than ever and is grateful for the opportunity to support others going through cancer. She’s particularly passionate about supporting young people and has been helping out at one of LBC’s support groups for young adults. She’s also eager to increase awareness of blood cancers, particularly in Pasifika communities. “I honestly believe that’s why I went through my journey – I got a second chance to live because I was meant to serve people, and to help in the places I love and care about the most.”