My passion for massage began as a young girl. I always had a natural pull towards massaging my loved ones. At high school I would give hand massages to friends throughout the day for a couple of coins to spend at the canteen. This natural desire and interest in therapeutic touch led me to study massage straight out of high school in 2008. I then went on to study beauty therapy and gain my diploma.

In 2012 I was living in Western Australia in a small mining town with my parents and brother when my mum was diagnosed with melanoma. She underwent massive surgery removing the affected lymph nodes in her groin which led to her developing secondary lymphedema. There wasn’t a huge amount of education provided by her treatment team about lymphedema other than to wear a compression bandage.

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In 2016 we got the devastating news that Mum’s cancer was considered terminal and so we returned to the family farm in New Zealand immediately.

I spent the next 2 months as Mum’s full-time caregiver, with trips in and out of hospice. It was there that the nurses taught me some specialised manual lymphatic drainage skills to help lessen the heaviness of the leg effected by lymphedema. It was during that time that I decided to study further to specialise in manual lymphatic drainage and provide massage for those affected by cancer, their caregivers, and those at end of life.

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Seven years later, after a few years of traveling Europe, and then two more years full-time studying, I am now so proud to be offering these services through my business, The Lymph Fairy.