ASB Good As Gold - Yvonne Johansen
15 December 2017 / Published in Your CommunityASB Good as Gold is an ASB initiative recognising, rewarding and helping wonderful people in our community. We ask the public to nominate people, who are making a real difference in their community, have grabbed hold of life against the odds or who really deserve help in a time of hardship. The recipients are featured on TV One’s Seven Sharp programme.
Sometimes you meet people who in an instant can change your whole outlook on life; Yvonne Johansen is one of those people. Yvonne is a Cardiac Rehab nurse at Greenlane Clinical Centre under the Auckland District Health Board, and helps patients recover from heart conditions and nurses them towards good health. She is a widow with an 11-year-old son and has no other living relatives around her.
In March this year Yvonne was diagnosed with a very rare, very aggressive metastatic cancer Leiomyosarcoma, which has since spread significantly. Sadly this cancer, Leiomyosarcoma is very difficult to treat and is so rare that only about 12 people each year are diagnosed in New Zealand. Yvonne is determined to fight it. Since her diagnosis, Yvonne has continued to work every day in the hope she can help others on their road to recovery.
Yvonne’s colleagues in Cardiology would love to see Yvonne enjoy a well-deserved break, and make some wonderful memories with her son. We gave Yvonne $15,000 to take her son on holiday to New York, where she went on honeymoon with her late husband.
Watch the video to see us surprise the very deserving Yvonne with the Seven Sharp team.
Yvonne's friends have also set up a Givealittle page to help fundraise money that will be used to support herself and son whilst she undergoes treatment. You can help by donating on the Givealittle page.
