Toni's kindred sprot 'SHE REMINDS ME TO LIVE EACH DAY TO THE FULLEST'

Brought together by fate and bonded by grief, the Coast radio host and her new best friend have changed each other's lives

- Sophie Neville

Beloved broadcaster Toni Street has always been a big believer in fate. Ever since she B was young, she's had the sense that someone or something beyond her control is looking over her. "It's comforting to think of the world like that," she says. "It helps me to try to make sense of things."

So it's no surprise that Toni believes fate had a hand to play when it came to her newfound close friendship with Auckland mum Sophia Perera, who won an on-air competition to join the Coast radio star on a Hawaiian holiday of a lifetime.

Sophia might have been drawn at random to join Toni and her breakfast co-hosts, Sam Wallace and Jason Reeves, on the luxury week away, but as soon as the radio stars heard her extraordinary story, it was clear they'd found someone very special indeed.

After losing her precious first-born daughter Valentina at age three in a tragic driveway accident in 2014, Sophia has been battling terminal cancer. As she revealed in a Woman's Day story last year, she's been through gruelling surgery and chemotherapy, and she's now having immunotherapy treatment in the hope of extending her life.

"We were all crying when we heard what Sophia has been through," admits Toni, who knows first-hand the heartbreaking reality of both grief and chronic illness. "It honestly felt like it was meant to be that we'd be put together like this. She deserved a boost so much and we really struck the jackpot because we all got on so well. We felt like a big extended family from the moment we met."

Toni, 39, and Sophia, 46, are joined at our photoshoot by the broadcaster's Coast co-stars Sam and Jase to reminisce about the amazing week they spent together, along with Sophia's husband Cam Warren, 51, and their daughter Augustina, six.