For almost two years, the young Christchurch woman wrote a diary in The Star of her experience with cancer, unwavering in her determination to get something to print almost every week, even during her toughest times.
Her readership grew quickly, as she gave an inspiring and very honest account of her journey, right up until her death in 2006.
Sixteen years later, Trudi’s writing is continuing to have an impact, with the launch of a new book, Trudi’s Diary: Living With A Brain Tumour – a collection of her weekly columns in The Star, as well as photos and poems, detailing her life and experience with cancer.
Trudi, who was born and raised in Oamaru, started writing the column in 2004, aged 24.
The Star editor Barry Clarke had approached CanTeen, looking for a young person living with cancer to write about their journey.
Because of her links to Oamaru, it was decided her columns would also be published weekly in the Oamaru Mail.
While her parents, Pat and Jock, had some reservations, she convinced them that sharing her experience publicly would be a great opportunity to raise awareness of CanTeen, an organisation she had been involved in since her early teenage years, after she was first diagnosed with cancer – non-Hodgkin lymphoma – aged 8.
She had been in remission for 14 years, until the brain tumour was discovered.
Writing a weekly column was not an easy assignment. Clarke warned Trudi that there would probably be times she would want to give up, and if things got bad for her health-wise, she would need to be honest and straight with readers.
But she was up for the challenge, and shared her journey “warts and all’’ with readers of the two newspapers, inspiring so many people with her courage, honesty and relentless positivity, Jock said.
Not wanting Trudi’s inspirational story to end up as just yellowing newspaper cuttings in the garage, Pat and Jock had always planned to get all of their daughter’s columns printed in book form as a tribute to a remarkable young woman and a record for family and friends.
If it could inspire other young people living with cancer, that would be a bonus, they said.
The columns in the book are produced as they appeared in the newspapers, and Pat has also shared A Mother’s Tale of Trudi’s story up to when she started writing her columns.
The book ends with letters of support written to Trudi and her family, and a selection of Trudi’s poems.
While it had a sad ending, Trudi’s Diary: Living With A Brain Tumour was an inspirational book, full of humour and hope, Pat said.
Trudi had remained positive throughout her treatment, never complaining and always looking forward.
“It doesn’t mean she wasn’t concerned or worried about herself, as you can see in the diary,’’ she said.
“She just had a good attitude to dealing with it."
For Pat and Jock, going back through all of Trudi’s columns and poems, and all the messages of support they had received, had been tough.
Clarke said the book was a tremendous tribute to Trudi.
"Trudi was a truly inspirational person, with a big heart and determination to match," he said.
"When she was simply too unwell to write her column, my phone would ring hot from readers wanting to know why it hadn’t appeared and if she was okay.
"She captured the hearts of many people."
