Michelle Stephenson doesn't use the word "cure." For her, cancer is something she lives with, a permanent fixture she's learned to work around rather than fight against. That shift in perspective hasn't come easily, but it's shaped everything about how she approaches her days.

"It's really hard to stay positive one hundred per cent of the time," she admits. So instead of chasing an impossible standard, Michelle focuses on a simpler question: what fills her cup?

Part of the answer has been Cancer Support NZ, which she discovered more than four years ago. The programme offers over 20 free, practical, non-medical classes designed to support people facing cancer, and what drew Michelle in was its flexibility.

What she found there surprised her. Not just useful sessions, but a community of people who understood without needing things explained. Cancer can be an isolating experience, appointments, treatment, and worry have a way of narrowing your world, and Michelle had felt that. Among others living similar realities, something loosened.

"You think, 'Actually, it's not only me,'" she says.

The conversations aren't centred on diagnoses. They're about everything beyond the illness: identity, joy, ordinary life. That's precisely the point. Cancer changes everything, but Michelle has found it doesn't have to define everything.

She still picks and chooses what classes she needs when she needs them, and leave sessions feeling lighter than when she arrived. For Michelle, Cancer Support NZ has accomplished something invaluable: helped her feel normal again. This support is made possible thanks to funds raised by our Dry July community, which keep these programmes free and accessible to all New Zealanders.