Mum by day - event medic by night! (Part 2)

Lucie (left) and friends on a charity "Zombie Run".

By Lucie Reece, part two of a three-part blog.

The children and being a good wife/ mother has been my main priority for a long time, but a few years ago, with the children being slightly less dependent on me, I started doing challenges and raising money for charity. 

I did it to support a friend in the UK who was battling cancer. I persuaded some friends to join me on crazy adventures including triathlons, head shaving, morning teas, a half marathon and a zombie run. We did it, supporting things that were important to us.

But there's only so much money you can ask people for. So, with my youngest at kindy five mornings and the other two at school, I started volunteering for the Cancer Society as a driver. I drive patients to their radiation appointments at Wellington Hospital and then bring them home. What is a simple thing for me means so much to the people I drive.

One lady still blows me away today, for confidentiality purposes I'm going to call her Mary. But I need to tell you about her.

Mary is 68 years old and has skin cancer.

I pick Mary up at 9.15am her appointment is at 10am at wellington hospital and is 20 minutes of radiation. She has to come five days a week for the next six weeks for radiation and on Saturdays she has a day of chemotherapy. That's quite a lot to cope with. But on top of this, Mary is holding down a full time job.

She works 3pm-5am at a factory, five nights a week. She loves her job, it's the one thing she says that makes her keep going. She gets to bed at 6am and then we turn up at 9am to pick her up. She never complains, she just keeps going and she's thankful to me for driving her! It's amazing the strength she has.

Volunteering is unpaid but for me the rewards are huge. Just making people's lives a little bit easier makes you very humble. 

This has also got me onto my new career path. Part three of Lucie’s blog will run tomorrow.