Latest news with #Marama
NZ Herald
03-05-2025
- Health
- NZ Herald
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson opens up about her cancer journey
The pair have been married for over 25 years and also have three older children, aged 30 to 27, living nearby, as well as three young grandchildren, although Marama is keen to keep her family's names out of the media because of recent security threats. After enduring two operations, six months of gruelling chemotherapy and 15 radiation treatments, she is delighted to report she is cancer-free. She's relieved to be back at work alongside her Green Party colleagues, commuting from her Auckland home to Wellington during the week and doing what she loves. But there's no doubt the experience has left its mark and that Marama has a new challenge on her hands – learning to take care of herself. 'That's my biggest battle right now, figuring out how to do this job and focus on staying well. Politics is such an unhealthy lifestyle, but I'm absolutely committed to doing things differently this time.' Marama is also determined to use her experience to spread the message about the importance of breast cancer screening. In New Zealand, women aged 45 to 69 are offered free mammograms every two years, but the politician admits she was late to sign up. It was only after she was 'shamed into it' by a breast cancer survivor at a Pink Ribbon fundraising breakfast that she finally had her first mammogram at 48. It was her second, two years later, that detected the cancer. 'What I want people to understand is that I'm only still here because it was found early,' she says. 'And if I wasn't on the screening register, if that amazing woman hadn't forced me into going, it could be a totally different story. Mammograms are just so important.' Marama admits her initial response to the diagnosis was one of 'total denial'. She viewed the appointments and tests as a huge inconvenience. In her 10-year political career, in which she's fought tirelessly on issues including domestic violence and poverty, she'd barely taken a day off and had never missed a caucus meeting. She foolishly told herself she'd be back at work after just a few weeks. 'I can see now that I was being ridiculous,' she reflects, explaining that the idea of not doing what she'd always done – advocating for the voiceless and working to create meaningful societal change – caused a crisis of confidence. Without her work, advocacy and community engagement, she no longer knew who she was. 'I wasn't thinking about the actual cancer at all. The tears I cried were all about my sense of identity and sense of purpose being threatened.' Initially, Marama, who is of Ngāti Porou, Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi descent, shared the news only with her sister and two colleagues, deciding not to tell Paul or their six kids until she had a clear treatment plan. She knows that might sound strange to some people, but she was determined to protect them until the last possible moment. 'Out of everyone in the universe who might feel the most threatened by this news, I knew it would be my children, so I wanted to have all the information and the whole plan worked out before I told them. I needed to make sure I could confidently tell them, 'I'm going to be OK.' I didn't want to upset people or make them worry.' Instead, Marama confided in National Party MP Nikki Kaye, who sadly lost her battle with breast cancer last November, aged 44. They might have had different political backgrounds, but Nikki became an incredible support, offering love, encouragement and advice as Marama faced the daunting prospect of treatment. Marama was heartbroken when Nikki died. 'She was just such an amazing woman. She helped me so much, emotionally and practically, because she knew what it was like going through cancer while also having a public profile. She had excellent Netflix recommendations, too!' While it was hoped she'd need just one operation – a partial mastectomy – and radiation, the surgery in June last year revealed the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes, pushing Marama from early stage one to stage two cancer. She would need a second surgery and a gruelling chemotherapy regime, plus 10 more radiation treatments than originally planned. While she'd been warned about possible side-effects, the severity of the nausea, exhaustion and excruciating bone pain hit her like a bombshell. 'There was no dignity in it at all. There was no quality of life. It was just horrendous.' Facing her mortality was confronting. Marama prepared her will, cleared out her files and ensured all her relationships with the people in her life were strong. 'I needed to know that I'd done everything I needed to if I was going to die.' Through it all, her family were her greatest allies. They brought food, made her tea, sat with her, took her to appointments and comforted her when she was at her sickest. 'Everyone stepped up big time,' she smiles. 'My son carried me out of the car from surgery. My daughter did all the meal prep. They all came and had a turn sitting with me at chemo. It was scary for them because they were used to seeing a mum who just doesn't stop, and suddenly I couldn't even get out of bed. But they were incredible.' Her mokopuna brought her enormous strength. 'They were at the centre of my healing. Someone would pop the baby into bed with me and we'd nap together. It was so lovely cuddling up with him, and it really helped to bring me out of the darkness.' Time with whānau became the biggest silver lining of Marama's cancer experience. Having sacrificed so much family time throughout her political life, it dawned on her that, even though she was unwell, being at home was a gift. Gratitude for her loved ones is what pulled her through, she says. 'I started to think, 'Hey, when was the last time I was home for anyone's birthday? When was the last time I was home for any weekends? When was the last time I could actually just be home and spend time with everyone?' I became really grateful for all I have because I know there are lots of women going through this with no support at all.' Marama, whose father is Whale Rider star and Māori rights activist Rawiri Paratene, also formed a deep solidarity with the breast cancer community, turning to online forums and spaces where people support each other. And another silver lining, she says, is her post-cancer hairstyle. She'd been wanting to 'go natural' for several years, but letting the grey grow out in the public eye felt awkward. 'So at least that problem has been solved. I love this new look!' Marama ended her treatment just before Christmas and her oncologist confirmed she was cancer-free in January. 'It was the biggest relief of my life.' Marama knows she'll need to consider future drug regimes to ensure she remains free of cancer, and it's a daunting thought, given the severity of her reaction to the chemo. So for the moment, she's simply enjoying being well again. Political life can be bruising, but Marama knows what she has to do to take care of herself – swimming, biking, taking her vitamins and getting enough sleep, plus daily lymphatic massage around her armpits and neck. 'My oncologist team was very clear that fatigue will be a problem and that, if we don't manage things carefully, I will end up sick again. So I'm taking their advice and accepting a lot of help. I'm so lucky to have such amazing people in my life.'
South China Morning Post
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Meet Toby Stephens, late Downton Abbey star Maggie Smith's actor son
Maggie Smith with her younger son, fellow thespian Toby Stephens. Celebrity children Last year, the world lost Dame Maggie Smith and we're yet to recover from the heartbreak. But now, the storied actress' younger son, Toby, 55, whom she shared with her ex-husband, actor Sir Robert Stephens, is revealing more details about her final moments. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Toby expressed his regret about not being with his mother when she took her last breath at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, in September. 'The last two years of her life had been a decline: she would get worse, then she would get better, then she would get worse,' he recalled. 'So I said, 'Look, I've got this film,' and before I could even ask her, she said, 'Go do it. God, you don't want to hang round here, I'm fine.'' Maggie Smith celebrates winning her best-actress Oscar (for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) with husband Robert Stephens and friends in 1970. Photo: TNS The film was Taratoa Stappard's Marama , a Māori gothic horror movie set in the 1800s, reports Variety. But a day before the project wrapped, the beloved Harry Potter actress died. Her elder son, Chris Larkin, was by her side. 'I was so sad not to be with him, I found that very difficult,' Stephens told The Sunday Times. Who is Toby Stephens, who gave up alcohol to turn his life around and who says he feels 'incredibly lucky'? Toby Stephens is an actor Toby Stephens as Poseidon in the 2023 Disney+ TV series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Photo: IMDb Stephens' parents never pushed him towards acting. In fact, they questioned him about his motivation for wanting to work in the industry. Still, he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda), says the Daily Mail, graduating in 1991. Three years later he played the lead in a production of Coriolanus by the Royal Shakespeare Company. After breaking into the film industry he became the youngest Bond villain, starring as Gustav Graves opposite Pierce Brosnan's 007 in Die Another Day (2002). His extensive resume also includes a stint as Mr Rochester in the 2006 TV adaptation of Jane Eyre , the evil Prince John in 2009 BBC series Robin Hood and appearances in Netflix's One Day and Lost in Space . He was subjected to nepo baby allegations Toby Stephens as Damian Cray in Amazon TV series Alex Rider. Photo: IMDb
The Independent
16-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Toby Stephens shares details of mother Maggie Smith's final moments
Maggie Smith 's son Toby Stephens has opened up about the final weeks of the acclaimed actor's life. Stephens and his brother Chris Larkin announced their mother, who was best known for her prominent roles in Harry Potter and Downton Abbey, had died 'peacefully' in hospital in September last year. Smith's health was in decline for the final two years of her life and by 2023, the Oscar-winning actor had stopped working altogether. Speaking to The Times, Stephens revealed he wasn't in the UK when his mother died because he'd been offered a role in the New Zealand horror film Marama, which was shooting at the time. Smith encouraged her son to take the role despite her health troubles. 'She was in hospital. She was supposed to be coming out, but the last two years of her life had been a decline: she would get worse, then she would get better, then she would get worse,' he explained. 'So I said, 'Look I've got this film,' and before I could even ask her, she said, 'Go do it. God, you don't want to hang round here, I'm fine.'' When Stephens arrived in New Zealand, however, the hospital staff informed him that his mother's condition would not improve. 'But it could take two months, two weeks, they didn't know,' he said. Shooting had began for Marama, and so Stephens rang Smith who insisted he stay and complete the project. Soon afterwards, his mother stopped being able to communicate. 'I'd spent hours and days sitting with her at home and in hospital over the course of two years, and there was nothing I had left unsaid,' Stephens said. Smith died on 27 September, the day before Stephens finished filming. His wife, Black Sails star Anna-Louise Plowman, and their three teenage children were all with her at the hospital the day before she died. Larkin was at Smith's bedside for her final moments. 'I was so sad not to be with him,' Stephens admitted. 'I found that very difficult, but she was no longer aware. And it allowed me some space to actually get my head round what had happened.' Elsewhere in the interview, Stephens said he had been touched by the response to his mother's death and the number of people who remembered her for her earlier roles. He added: 'The thing that really got me was: it's very rare that you have actors that everyone likes. And she had spent her life not thinking of herself like that, which is very winning. 'If she had thought of herself like that it would have been ghastly. But she wasn't like that at all. She had self-knowledge, self-belief. Like most actors, though, she was riven with self-doubt.' A giant of theatre and a deft character actor on film, Smith was nevertheless something of an outsider, despite the adulation she received throughout her career, having acquired a reputation as rather spiky and acid-tongued, disinclined to suffer fools gladly. On whether she had ever felt inclined to try to correct this perception, she told an audience at London's Tricycle Theatre in 2017: 'It's gone too far now to take back. If I suddenly came on like Pollyanna, it wouldn't work – it would frighten people more if I were nice. 'They'd be paralysed with fear. And wonder what I was up to. But perhaps I should try it… 'Hello! What fun! We're going to be here all day! And then filming all night, too! Goodie! And it's so lovely and cold!''
