Weed All About It! - Paddy's Cannabis Crusade For Mum

Losing his mother to cancer sends the broadcaster off to the big smoke

- Cloe Willetts

It took Newshub journalist Patrick “Paddy” Gower a decade to open up about the devastating loss of his mum Joan after she battled a slow and painful death with lung cancer.

When the popular national correspondent finally dug up his trauma, it was during the upcoming two-part documentary Paddy Gower: On Weed, speaking with his dad Gordon about their shattering loss.

“Basically, my dad and I have the biggest cry ever in our family and maybe the biggest cry ever on TV!” tells the Wellington-based journalist, 42. “Anyone who has experienced cancer knows the suffering and pain someone goes through, which gets worse and worse.

“If I’d known about medicinal cannabis when Mum was sick, I would’ve definitely given it to her.”

After filming the controversial doco, including heading to California where cannabis is legal, Paddy confesses he has a new respect for the plant.

When the series airs on Three on September 11 and 18, ahead of next year’s cannabis referendum, viewers can see the broadcaster explore the pros and cons of marijuana legalisation in New Zealand.

“If I’d told Mum when I was young, before she had cancer, that I’d grow up and make a documentary about weed, she’d have given me the biggest clip around the earhole!” laughs Paddy, who was raised in New Plymouth.

From a young age, the broadcaster loved to read and was regularly scanning the Taranaki Daily News at nine. He was the first in his family to attend university, gaining a BA in politics in Wellington, before studying journalism in Auckland.

“My cousins, God bless their souls, are bogan,” Paddy says. “There’s all these bogan genes settled in a deep pool among my male cousins, and then there’s a thing called runt of the litter. I can’t loosen a bolt or hammer a nail, or back a trailer.”