Pegasus Post: June 16, 2022

4 Thursday June 16 2022
‘It’s made me appreciate what’s actually
• From page 1
A few days later, feeling like
something wasn’t right, Sarah
took Mackenzie to an after hours
medical centre.
Within minutes of arriving,
Mackenzie’s heart stopped beating.
“It was horrible, just watching
my wee baby being resuscitated
and having to call my husband
to tell him that her heart had
stopped and to come in,” Sarah
said.
“She passed away very suddenly
and I had no idea what had
happened until the post-mortem
came back, and it took months.”
Mackenzie died from a heart
defect where a hole in her heart,
known as a patent ductus arteriosus,
hadn’t properly closed over
after being born as well as having
high blood pressure in her lungs.
Sarah said while the hospital
staff did an incredible job at trying
to help Mackenzie, it was too
much for her little body to handle
and she died at 13-days-old.
“She coped with what ended
up being fatal very well right up
until her body went: ‘We can’t do
this anymore’.”
Afterwards, Sarah felt there
was a lack of mental health
support offered with no funded
clinical psychologists or counsellors
to talk to.
She attended a support group
but said she would have benefited
much more from one-on-one
therapy, and feels as though her
seven-year-old daughter, who
was two at the time would have
benefited from this as well.
Every August, for Mackenzie’s
anniversary, Sarah goes to Tekapo
with her husband Greg, their
daughters Hazel, 7, and Willa, 2,
and her step-daughter Tayla, 19,
to connect as a family through
what is a very hard time.
Last year when they were checking
out of their accommodation,
Sarah asked to book for the same
time next year and got talking to
the woman at reception.
She opened up about the reason
behind their yearly visit and
the pain of loosing Mackenzie.
The woman said to Sarah:
“That’s given me goosebumps,”
and told her about Kenzie’s Gift,
a charity that supports families
going through grief or loss.
The charity was doing a winter
swim challenge to raise money
for mental health to go towards
helping families in similar situations
to Sarah’s.
So Sarah decided to commit to
the winter swims, mostly at New
LOVE: Sarah
Luxon is making
the most of
time she has
left with her
family and said
she’s enjoying
the small things
like picking up
the kids from
school.
PHOTO:
HEATHER
RECORDS
PHOTOGRAPHY
Brighton Beach to raise money
for what she described as a very
worthwhile cause.
“I’m not a big putting myself
out there person but I did 13 dips
so one for each day of Mackenzie’s
life,” Sarah said.
Sarah, who isn’t a strong
swimmer started off with a goal
of raising $300 and was “very
touched” by people’s generosity
when she raised more than
$3000.
However, during her dips,
Sarah noticed a lump on her
abdomen that she assumed was a
hernia.
But after feeling fatigued and
experiencing bowel issues, she
went for a check up.
After multiple visits to doctors,
a gynaecologic oncologist, orthopaedics,
an ultrasound, an MRI,
a biopsy and months of waiting,
Sarah was diagnosed with stage
four ovarian cancer and given a
five to 15-year prognosis.
During this time, Sarah continued
with her winter dips, in
spite of it being painful on her
abdomen.
Sarah said she felt frustrated
with how long it took to get a diagnosis
and said if it was a lump
on her breast she would have got
it checked straight away.
“As women we get told to check
our breasts, but we don’t hear
that there’s no screening at all
for ovarian cancer. It was not
something that I knew about or
considered,” she said.
“There’s just not enough awareness
about all of those issues and
people feel really awkward talking
about ovaries.”
Faced with a prognosis of up
to 15 years and still grieving the
loss of baby Mackenzie, Sarah
realised she felt alone, so started
a blog in hopes of helping others
going through something
similar.
She called it Joy in the Small
Things and posts regularly about
navigating life with her diagnosis
and sharing her experiences.
Let’s use water
like we oughta
Charges are in the pipeline for households in Christchurch
and Banks Peninsula that regularly use large amounts of water.
Most households are using less than 700 litres of water a day and won’t be charged. Thanks for using water like you oughta!
A fairer way to manage our city’s water supply
We don’t charge ratepayers for water itself. We charge for delivering it -
through our network of pipes, pumps and other infrastructure.
When the district’s water use doubles over summer, the cost of
delivering water goes up significantly too. That increase in demand isn’t
spread evenly, with most of the increase due to a small proportion of
households.
When demand on our water supply network is at its peak we’re at risk of
not being able to supply enough water to properties, which could have
serious impacts on public health, and our ability to fight fires.
If everyone uses water like we oughta, we won’t need to spend as much
money expanding our water supply network, and it will also improve
the sustainability of our city’s water supply, which helps us achieve our
climate change goals.
Seek the leak and reduce your use
You can use our Water Reporter online tool to find out how much water
your household uses – visit ccc.govt.nz/WaterReporter
If your household is using a lot of water there might be a leak on
your property. You have time to find the leak and get it fixed.
Our website tells you about how to read your water meter, check for
leaks and reduce your water use*.
*Some properties’ water use is not recorded on the Water Reporter.
This includes: properties with a shared water
meter, properties that haven’t had their
water meter read due to inaccessibility
of the meter and properties without
a water meter.
Let’s use water like we oughta
Want to know your water use?
ccc.govt.nz/WaterReporter