Southern View: June 16, 2022

Thursday June 16 2022 5
important’
“I started it up just as a way
to share with people what was
happening with cancer and
the treatment and I found that
writing helped me work through
quite a few things emotionally
and mentally.”
“I felt quite isolated
or separated
because I didn’t
know anybody
else who had been
through a similar
experience with
having a daughter
die at 13 days and
then finding that
there’s not a huge
amount of awareness
on ovarian
cancer as well,”
Sarah said.
Sarah has undergone
surgery
to have all the
visible tumours
removed and began
chemotherapy
on Christmas Eve,
and is now on
hormone blockers to prevent any
further growths.
“Scientists haven’t done studies
on people with this cancer [ovarian]
so they don’t know how best
to treat it so it’s not that there
are drugs out there that aren’t
funded, it’s that they don’t know
what drugs to actually make
available for us,” Sarah said.
“There’s no research so it feels
quite lonely. They can’t even give
me a prognosis better than five to
15 years.”
Sarah said she’s still trying to
get her head around her prognosis
and gets tripped up on a
daily basis by her seven-year-old
asking questions
like will she ever
be a grandma?
“How do you
respond to that?
Yeah, it’s very
hard.”
Sarah has
stopped working
to spend as much
time as she can
with her family
and said she tries
her best to stay in
the moment.
“I can’t bring
myself to miss out
on the potentially
short time left
with the kids. I’m
enjoying taking
the kids to swimming
lessons and
being there at the
school gates for pick-up.”
Sarah said she feels incredibly
lucky for the people she has
around her and after all she’s
been through it’s changed her
perspective on life.
“It’s made me appreciate what’s
actually important, I don’t sweat
the small stuff,” she said.
“I just want to help people, I
just want to make a difference in
someone else’s life.”
Miniature gets makeover
A LOT of attention to detail and
a dash of nostalgia. Those are key
to the work artist Mike Beer –
aka GhostCat – is doing in situ,
restoring the miniature model
of the Port Hills at the Victoria
Park Visitor Centre.
The model was originally
created by Judith Streat and installed
as part of the visitor centre
upgrade in the early 2000s.
“It was really nice to see some
of the most popular places and
trails had worn away on the
model as you could literally see
where people had traced their
pathways,” said city council
parks programmes and partnerships
manager Kate Russell.
“But after more than 20 years,
the model was at the end of its
life and it was time for a refresh.”
The work is being done by
Beer, who has found his niche in
miniatures.
“I usually do more urban work,
miniature objects, buildings and
city stuff, so this was a bit out of
the ordinary for me,” he said.
“It’s not like these jobs come up
very often. I’m stoked to be doing
it. The Port Hills are such an
iconic part of Christchurch.”
Over the five days he’s been
working on it, he’s been focused
on making it look as realistic as
possible.
“The process is all about building
it up in layers. You start with
the landscape, the trees and the
REFRESH:
Artist Mike Beer,
aka GhostCat,
restoring the
miniature model
of the Port Hills
at the Victoria
Park Visitor
Centre.
PHOTO:
NEWSLINE
scrub before you add detail,”
Beer said.
“Then we’ve added the tracks,
more details to the outer areas
like the sea of Lyttelton Harbour
and the roads, even some froth in
the ocean where it would hit the
hills.”
As well as restoring the model,
it’s also being updated with more
accurate track locations and
Māori place names.
Said Russell: “This project is
part of a wider refresh of the
centre, which will also include
Māori content such as providing
access to the Ngāi Tahu Atlas
and sharing the story of the
Māori relationship with the
Port Hills.”
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