Jacquie Kidd, Ngāpuhi, has spent a lifetime standing with whanau Māori, who battle a health system designed for others and are twice as likely to die from cancer as Pākehā. Now sixty-two and facing her own terminal cancer diagnosis, Jacquie has written her story to better understand herself and her whakapapa, and to share what she’s discovered working with people who are dying after they’ve been diagnosed too late – most importantly, that a health and social system designed around whānau Maori allows everyone to flourish.

After struggling with her early education and dropping out of nursing school, Jacquie drew on the rage she felt at inequities in Aotearoa to make a second attempt at a nursing career and further study, eventually becoming a professor of Maori health in her fifties. In the end stage of her illness, Jacquie’s focus is on leaving a world where her students and mokopuna can thrive. A hope for something better for Aotearoa shines through the story she delivers with the honesty, humour, courage and drive for social justice that are the pou of her phenomenal life.