She's going PLACES! WENDY'S ROAD TO RECOVERY

LOVE, FAMILY, AND RUNNING ARE KEEPING THE STARS STRONG

- Donna Fleming

When the going gets tough, Wendy Petrie gets running. Lacing up her trainers and pounding the pavements helps the TVNZ newsreader to deal with stress and it was a strategy she found particularly helpful last year, when she was coping with the impact of Covid-19, then losing her job presenting the 6pm news.

“Through that first lockdown, I was running pretty much every day. I needed to get out of the house and have some time out from the busyness of life and kids, and the general stress of everything,” says the mum-of-three. “Last year was really hard for a lot of people and I know that for me, running helped. It instantly brightens my day when I have done some exercise in the morning. And it helps me in every aspect of my life.”

Running’s not just a great stressbuster in the difficult times, points out Wendy – it’s a way of keeping mental health on an even keel all the time. Especially when she went to her dermatologist to check a spot on her arm that needed to be immediately removed. After a two-week nervous wait, biopsy results confirmed it was skin cancer. Thankfully, it was all removed, but she says, “It’s a wake-up call to get regular checks, even while we are distracted by a pandemic.”

She counts herself as lucky to be a naturally happy person. “I guess I am an eternal optimist. Plus, I have got great friends and family around me, and it makes such a difference, being surrounded by positive people.”