Mel Curwood recently came across an online post of a billboard outside a café which read ‘Go home 2023, you’re drunk’ – a fitting phrase that pretty much summed up what many of us had been feeling as 2023 unfolded and one Mel relates to.
Her world came crashing down when her husband of 23 years, John Curwood, was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
The couple, who have sons Seth, 22, and Liam, 16, met as students at Te Aroha College in 1995 and have been together ever since.
Suddenly, the things that once seemed important faded into the background, and they were faced with a new reality.
“When they told us what they found, everything else ceased to exist,” Mel shares.
“John and I have shared everything in life – we grew
