A Duck-Shaped Octopus: A Family's Journey Through Childhood Cancer
Author:
Roanne Barnes Hautapu
Publisher:
Atuanui Press
ISBN:
9781991159168
Date published:
5 May 2024
Pages:
320
Format:
Paperback
RRP:
$45.00
In 2013 Quinn Hautapu presented to hospital with the seemingly minor symptom of a limp arm, within a short time she was on a Life Flight to Wellington to work out the cause of a massive bleed on the brain. She was seven years old. A month later, after brain surgery and numerous scans, the Hautapu family was given the shocking news that Quinn had brain cancer. What followed was 12 months of the most intense, emotional and difficult time that a family can experience. From further brain surgery to remove a tumour, to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and physical therapy, Quinn spent most of the next year in and out of Starship Hospital, while her family moved into Ronald McDonald House close by. They were away from their Palmerston North home for most of the year. The entire time it was uncertain if Quinn would survive. In a day-by-day journal, Quinn's mother, Roanne Barnes Hautapu, has written a profoundly moving account of what the family went through, expressing the overwhelming trauma and gruelling realities of dealing with childhood cancer.
Author:
The Hautapu whanau have appeared with Sam Wallace on the TV ONE Breakfast show and have featured in several national news articles in the NZ Herald and Stuff. Quinn Hautapu featured in a film that won the the Inspiring Stories Film Competition and has a Facebook page with over 7000 followers.
