Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson has provided an update on her breast cancer treatment.
In a post to social media last night, the 50-year-old thanked her supporters for their love and support.
“We’re in the thick of it,” she wrote on Instagram.
“Just popping in briefly to thank everyone for the overwhelming and beautiful aroha that you all keep sending through to my whānau and I. It means EVERYTHING. I send my love back to everyone with my full gratitude and appreciation.”
Davidson announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer at a Parliament press conference in June.
Flanked by Green Party colleagues, she said she would be undergoing a partial mastectomy at the beginning of July and then taking leave from Parliament for about four months.
In a previous post, she said she would be taking a break from social media to use “every last minute to settle loose ends at work and get our whare and family ready for me to be still for a while.”
“I’m trying my darndest to turn my focus completely to my whānau and whakapapa now. Which means treatment, healing and recovery.”
“For real, I know Imma [sic] miss you all so much, but friends have loaded me up with reading and listening and art and I have a full bag of clothes mending to get onto.”
Ah-Leen Rayner, chief executive of Breast Cancer Foundation NZ, said: “Our thoughts are with Marama and her whānau as she starts her treatment journey, and we wish her a full and speedy recovery.
“We’re also grateful to Marama for highlighting the importance of early detection as this can give you the best chance of survival. If your breast cancer is detected via mammogram, your 10-year survival can be as high as 95%.
“That’s why we encourage women to make sure they book in for their regular free mammograms from age 45 to 69. Women of all ages need to get to know the normal look and feel of their breasts so they can see a GP quickly if they notice any unusual changes – we call that being ‘breast aware’.”
