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Kiwi actor Pio Terei and his wife Debbie have spoken out about the heartbreak they suffered after their youngest son died of leukaemia.
Their 17-year-old son Teina died last August after losing his battle with the disease.
In the family’s interview with the Herald on Sunday, mum Debbie revealed her son was diagnosed with the illness: acute myeloid leukaemia, last April.
The first signs her son showed of being unwell, she said, was when he complained of chest pains one morning.
A visit to Waitakere Hospital would reveal fluid around his heart which needed to be drained.
While the illness didn’t show any recognisable symptoms, three months after the hospital visit, Debbie said she became aware of her boy’s constant tiredness and knew “something was wrong.”
Their son would spend seven months all together at Auckland’s Starship children’s hospital, with the family rarely leaving Teina’s side while he received treatment.
Watching her boy go through Chemo, Debbie recalls, was incredibly difficult for her.
“Chemo kills everything. Your hair falls out, your skin peels off, you vomit, you get diarrhoea, it is the most hideous thing.”
Pio, a New Zealand Order of Merit recipient, said his son’s death had taken a huge toll on him and his family.
“I am not scared of death now, I am not scared of anybody or anything because I have already been smacked. I would rather take on the Mob in a pub in South Auckland than go through what we’ve been through,” he told NZME.
In honour of their son’s life, the entertainer and his wife have created the Trust Teina.
The trust will help raise awareness to those in the community who might be able to donate bone marrow – with a focus on Maori and Pacific Island men.
Bone marrow transplants are one of the main weapons in the fight against leukaemia, which kills 346 Kiwis a year.
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