Tara Cheung thought her life was "pretty bad" when she woke up in hospital after stomach surgery, and found the surgeons had not stitched her back up again.
"As if my stomach wasn’t already sore, that left me feeling a bit queasy."
The 32-year-old has Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS), a rare genetic disorder which leaves people with polyps and dark-coloured spots on various parts of their body.
In Miss Cheung’s case, the polyps affect her stomach and bowel.
When she was 14, it caused a major bowel obstruction and she had to have surgery to remove them.
But in the process, she got sepsis and needed a string of further surgeries.
"My tummy had to be left open for a wee while because the surgeons had to keep going back in, multiple times.
"They had something called a vac dressing on it. So it was open, but it was a machine that they had on to sort of keep my innards all safely in place and whatnot.
"I was in hospital for several months. It wasn’t great."
"You look at some of the other kids on the trip and you think, ‘Man, I thought I had problems’.
"It was eye-opening to see what other people experience and go through.
"There’s always someone else worse off than you. Always."
Miss Cheung said the trip was life-changing because it gave her an escape from her day-to-day medical issues, and an opportunity to gain some confidence and independence.
"It was very scary going on the trip because I hadn’t really spent a lot of time away from my family.
"Even when I was sick in hospital and had spent months and months and months on end in hospital, either Mum or Dad would always stay with me every night.
"So the trip was an opportunity for me to find some independence.
"It also took me out of my comfort zone because we did a whole heap of really fun things, like lots of theme parks. I’m not one for heights.
"Because of this trip, I was able to push myself outside of my usual comfort zone."
She said the confidence gained from the trip led her to become an oncology and haemotology nurse at Dunedin Hospital, and a volunteer first responder at Waitati Fire Brigade.
"If I hadn’t gone through this experience, I wouldn’t have become a nurse."
She has also become a member of the Koru Care Otago committee and is going to the Gold Coast again — this time as one of six carers of 11 children with long-term medical conditions, disabilities and neurodiversity.
"It’s like I’m going full circle. It’s amazing."
She hoped the children would see her as a role model, and living proof that they could do whatever they put their mind to.
"I’m hoping that I’ll be as inspiring for them as the medical team was for me on my trip."
The trip runs from October 12-21.
