As a diplomat, Beth Madden has spent her career making a life-saving difference in the countries where she has been stationed.
When she and her partner Anty Mamo learned they were having a baby, they dreamed of how they would raise their child to have the same drive to help others.
Little did they realise that at only a few days old, wee Nia would help save a life – her mother’s. During labour, Beth suffered haemorrhoids that helped diagnose stage three colorectal cancer.
Baby Nia cheered her mum up during gruelling treatments.
“I gave her life and she saved mine, which is a beautiful thing,” 40-year-old Beth tells Woman’s Day. “I had haemorrhoids after giving birth and then went for a colonoscopy when they hadn’t improved after three months. We organised to do it first thing in the morning so I could get back to Nia as I was breastfeeding.
“The doctor said, ‘You’re not going anywhere. We just found a tumour. You’ve got cancer.’ I had no signs or symptoms and no family history.”
Beth had five weeks’ worth of radiation in one week and then went straight into major surgery, which had complications.
“I couldn’t breastfeed Nia any longer,” she recalls. “I wasn’t able to the touch her initially due to the radiation. I was in hospital a lot. I was very, very unwell. It was devastating.”
With little time to recover, Beth then had chemotherapy for four months.
“There’s a lot of damage that’s done from all the treatments. I’m forever grateful, but it’s not great on the body, especially when you’ve just given birth.”
Beth is currently on unpaid leave from her role as a diplomat. Specialising in African issues, she had been in the job only a few years when she was posted as the deputy ambassador in Ethiopia and within a year, in 2014, she met Anty, now 37.
Beth was based in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, establishing the New Zealand Embassy. Anty ran a tourism business there, taking travellers on escorted tours. The pair left Ethopia for Beth’s next posting as the deputy ambassador in South Africa, living in Pretoria until they moved back for Beth’s new role in Wellington in early 2020.
The couple soon found out they were having a baby and Nia was born in the capital in August, before they moved to be with Beth’s family in Christchurch while she was on maternity leave. That was when she was diagnosed.
“Our whole lives changed,” tells Beth. “We had a plan, we knew what postings we wanted to go on next and we had this brand-new, beautiful baby. Then all of a sudden, I was fighting for my life.”
Even now, Beth lacks the energy she had before cancer. But always looking for silver linings, the couple feels fortunate they were in New Zealand to access healthcare that is far better than in Ethopia.
Aware of how impoverished remote areas can be, Anty had spent several years calling on the friendships he made with people in the medical profession, when hosting international travellers, to source medical equipment and supplies for Ethiopian villages, as many of the health centres lack basic necessities.
Even when his tourism business had to stop operating during COVID lockdowns and the subsequent civil unrest, he continued to support local health clinics.
Anty explains, “Whenever I get the chance, I try to make a difference in other people’s lives by making things better for them.”
On safari in South Africa, where Beth was the deputy ambassador.
It was on a trip back home to visit ageing and ailing relatives that Anty started touring the local weavers,and together he and Beth hatched the plan to create the Mamo Collection, an online business sourcing ethically produced scarves, wraps and baby blankets from the Dorze people of Ethiopia, selling them in New Zealand and sending the profits back to Anty’s village.
“We want to really help to uplift the communities that Anty’s from,” Beth says.
“Giving back and helping others is really important to us. We wanted to stay connected to Ethiopia. Where he’s from, they’re known for their weaving, so it just made sense to curate a collection of beautiful textiles that we know are organic and natural materials.”
Anty agrees, “We want it to be a sustainable income for these weavers. These are very poor rural villages, but they’re amazing artisans with skills that are passed down from generation to generation.”
Beth is excited to see the difference the money will make to Anty’s community and looks forward to when she can take Nia there to meet her relatives.
“We’re still on the recovery journey at the moment, but we will definitely take her to Anty’s village. It’s such a privilege to be her parents.”
To view Beth and Anty’s range of Ethiopian textiles, head to mamocollections.com.
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