The financial strain, changes to family life and the pain of watching their eldest daughter endure repeated surgeries and intensive treatment became part of the four year battle for WOWS Kids co-founders Taholo Kami and Sina Kami after Tae Kami was diagnosed with cancer.
Speaking on Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan, Taholo says the first estimate for Tae’s treatment was almost NZ$60,000, at a time when he and Sina were living on church salaries and had already been through four or five operations with their daughter, adding, that going public about Tae’s illness was one of the hardest steps for the family.
After Tae was interviewed by a radio station, Taholo says people they did not know, began coming forward to help.
Insert: Taholo on help received 25th Sept
Taholo says contributions continued to come from people who did not know the family, while members of the Tongan community from across Auckland also rallied behind Tae.
By the time the family arrived in New Zealand, he says there was enough money in their bank account to pay the deposits and meet expenses as they came.
But for the Kami family, the battle went far beyond the financial burden.
Taholo says their entire family life changed as hospital appointments, treatment, medicines and finding the right food became their daily reality, describing it as being in the middle of a storm, with Tae as the warrior at the centre of it.
Taholo says he felt overwhelmed almost every day, but there was no choice but to continue, recalling how he would get up early, drive to the hospital to change shifts with Sina, deal with other responsibilities and sometimes return to work, while carrying the constant knowledge that his daughter was fighting cancer.
He says throughout the four years, wherever he was and whatever he was doing, the moment he stopped, he remembered that his daughter was fighting cancer.
For Sina, the battle also meant helping Tae’s younger sisters, understand what was happening.
She says she had to tell Mia that she would be taking Tae while she and Joy stayed behind and prayed for their sister until they were ready to join them.
Sina says she sometimes wondered what the younger girls were thinking as the family’s attention was focused on Tae.
However, she says Tae herself helped her sisters understand what she was going through and was preparing them in ways they did not fully understand at the time.
For Sina, one of the hardest parts was watching Tae endure the physical pain of cancer and its treatment.
She says there were times doctors would discover an opening and tell them Tae needed to be taken into theatre, with Tae giving them a thumbs-up while Sina was the one who had to walk away.
Sina says seeing her daughter suffer sometimes made her wish she could take her place.
Tae Kami lost the battle to cancer in August, 2008 and WOWS Kids Fiji began to fulfill the dying wish of the 15-year-old, who wanted to support other children battling cancer in the Pacific.
