After being diagnosed with a brain tumour at 17, Nicole White struggled to process and express her emotions.
To spread the message that talking about cancer isn't a bad thing, the Greymouth nurse now shares reflections about life after a terminal diagnosis on her personal platform Why Not Me? .
"Us patients, we often feel like it's a taboo subject. I always thought that I would make people upset by talking about it, but actually, I was making people upset by not talking about it. It's a big thing to go through, and you can't do it by yourself. It's okay to talk about it, and it's okay to have terrible days, but people are there to support you," she tells Nine to Noon.
As a younger person with cancer, White says her biggest coping mechanism was joking around. When she was having a bad day, her parents reminded her to get out of the house and go for a run.
"Physical activity has always been my outlet, it's always been my way to resolve stress, shut off the world, just go out for a run and ignore everything for the next hour.
"People always say listen to your body. Maybe I'm not the biggest supporter of that because some days [when I feel the need to run] I really don't listen to my body."
At 17, Nicole White was diagnosed with a rare Polymorphous Low-grade Neuroepithelial Tumour of the Young (PLNTY).
TNR Protography
After underestimating the amount of training she needed to do for the 2023 Queenstown Marathon - while taking oral chemotherapy medication - White says it was "absolutely phenomenal" that she finished the event.
This November, she hopes to beat her time while also raising awareness for the New Zealand charity Brain Tumour Support .
The rare Polymorphous Low-grade Neuroepithelial Tumour of the Young (PLNTY) that grew in White's brain first made itself known when she was a 16-year-old driving with her mum on her learner's license.
After experiencing what she later learned was an absent seizure, White's mind suddenly went "completely blank" and her mum had to grab the steering wheel.
Initially diagnosed with epilepsy, she was prescribed anti-seizure medication, but 12 months later, a CT scan revealed the tumour, which was predicted to be slow-growing.
"Brain cancer is a big thing to go through, and you can't do it by yourself" - Nicole White.
TNR Protography
At the end of 2018, it was confirmed that the tumour was growing, and by mid 2019, it was growing at a concerning rate. That year, White had a second brain surgery and started taking oral chemotherapy. In 2024, she had two further brain surgeries.
Now in remission, White will continue to have scans for the rest of her life and even after a "clean" one, says the tumour could potentially come back.
"It's more likely than not that things potentially will return in the future, but at the moment, we don't know when that will be.
"Right now, me, my family and my partner, we just like to live in the moment and enjoy life for what it is."
"Physical activity has always been my outlet" - Nicole White.
TNR Protography
For the last three years, White has been in her "dream job" at Greymouth Hospital.
Soon after moving to the West Coast, she met her now-husband Dean, a photographer. When she learned the tumour had again grown, they had been together only a short time, she says.
"The fact that he stayed by my side is absolutely phenomenal. We're so close, and we do so many adventures together."
On their most recent adventure, she proposed to Dean at a little Airbnb in Reykjavik amidst New Year's Eve fireworks.
"The aurora was in the background very dimly, and my partner is a very avid aurora chaser, so I thought it would be something that he would love. Yeah, it was just perfect, it was beautiful."
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