Surviving against all odds - CANCER PATIENT'S NEW HOPE

When Tania became terminal, something Sweet occurred

- Leena Tailor

Having dealt with thousands of children throughout 16 years of relief teaching, Tania Honey thought she’d encountered every scenario or question that might pop up when she became a mother. But after being diagnosed with breast cancer, she promptly learned how differently children handle curveballs.

Her middle son Caleb, then five, declared, “You don’t have cancer because only dead people have cancer.” Youngest Ben gave her cuddles no matter how “ghostly” she looked. And eldest Zach, then seven, reminded Tania to take her meds and offered spontaneous hugs at breakfast before explaining, “You never know when it’s your last hug.”

“I dropped him to school afterwards, then broke down,” recalls Tania, 48.

While the Auckland mum initially kicked cancer, she later faced telling her sons the disease had not only returned, but had also become incurable.

It’s her husband Brian, 52, who has been Tania’s rock as she tries everything in her power to prolong her life and enjoy every possible moment she has left with her sons.

The pair, who married in 2000, required fertility treatment before welcoming Zach, now 17, and were stunned when Tania became pregnant naturally with Caleb, 16, months later. Ben, 14, was born two years after Caleb.

Juggling three young kids was a challenge, with Tania “basically setting up a kindy in the house” and it was while Ben was cuddling her in 2011 that Tania noticed chest discomfort. She was diagnosed with stage 2B breast cancer and shares, “I’m small-breasted, so my brothers went, ‘How could you get it?’ Good old brothers!”