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At 41, Tamsyn Hayes has terminal cancer and her Dunedin medical team estimate she only has about three months left.
But the Dunedin police constable and former professional Ironman athlete is a fighter and refuses to give up, because she wants more time to make memories with her 10-year-old daughter Anja.
Const Hayes said the only way to give herself more time was to raise money to buy cancer treatments that are not publicly funded in New Zealand.
In 2023, she was diagnosed with stage 3, triple-negative breast cancer — the most aggressive form of breast cancer.
So, with support from her husband Glen, she went through chemotherapy, immunotherapy, surgeries and radiation treatment, and was declared “in remission” about a year later.
She got back to her life raising Anja, completing a couple of half marathons and the 2025 Wānaka half Ironman, and working fulltime with Dunedin police, the Armed Offenders Squad and the Dignitary Protection Service.
“I was right back into all my sports and my job and continued with life. I felt very healthy. Nothing was wrong.”
But then, in early 2025, a week after completing the half Ironman, a regular cancer scan discovered a meningioma, a non-cancerous tumour about the size of a golf ball, on her brain.
Last November, just before she was scheduled to have the tumour removed, she had “a random pain, sort of running down my leg”.
“My brain surgeon, because of my history, got an MRI scan of my back to double check everything before he sliced my head open.
“And straight away, he found a whole lot of concerning spots on my spine.”
Her surgery was cancelled and she was referred back to her oncologist, who told her the cancer was in her spine, and she only had about 18 months to live.
He then sent her for more scans that day.
“Then the very next day, when I thought obviously nothing could get any worse, he said the scans showed I had metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.
“It meant the cancer was not only in my bones, it had spread to both my lungs, my liver, my chest, both my adrenal glands and some lymph nodes.
“It was everywhere. I was in total shock. I was just staring at him.
“I thought I’d already shed enough tears the day before, thinking I only had 18 months left, and then within 24 hours, he told me that with or without treatment, I only had 3-12 months to live.”
A diagnosis like that would have crushed most people’s will to fight. But not Const Hayes.
“A lot of people say, ‘Oh, you’re so strong’, but I don’t know if I’m strong.
“I think it’s probably through my career as a police officer and my background as an Ironman athlete racing professionally around the world — they’re all things that have given me the strength and resilience to fight this battle.”
In the wake of the diagnosis, she started taking a cancer treatment that had kept the tumours at bay, but it cost her more than $100,000 because it was not publicly funded in New Zealand.
“That treatment is standard of care, pretty much around the entire world — but not New Zealand.”
More recently, the treatment had stopped working, so she is now raising funds to pay for a new unfunded drug — Trodelvy — which is also standard of care overseas.
Even with discounts from the drug company, it is still $20,000 a month.
She remained focused, but realistic that the money would eventually run out.
“So, I will be on it until either A, it stops working, or B, I pass away.
“Obviously, I’m doing everything I can to try and fight this.
“At the moment, I’m just trying really hard to raise funds so I can stay on Trodelvy.”
Overseas clinical trials were also a possibility.
She said the main motivation behind her fight was Anja.
Their bond was strengthened in 2021, when Const Hayes lost Anja’s little sister during child birth.
“There’s something about when you’re a mum and you lose your daughter.
“I have to do everything I can to be here for Anja, even though it’s horrible treatment and it’s not fun.
“I’ve told her, I will fight until my last breath to stay around for her as long as I can, because I want her to have as many memories as possible of our life together.
“It’s important to me that my daughter knows that her mum tried for as long as she could.”
A Givealittle page has been set up to help raise funds for Const Hayes’ cancer treatment.