We invite you to Join us for a fabulous night celebrating and shaking it' to raise funds for our incredible friend Jono.

Many of you will know our courageous friend and his journey so far and many will know the challenging times that cancer and chronic illness can impose on our lives with this in mind a group of us are have come together to put on an uplifting night of comical burlesque and performance art to raise some funds to support Jono, Hazel and their beautiful family through this time and beyond. To read more about Jono's story see below 💖

Performers who will be shimmying and shaking it for Jono:

Amy Leigh
Angelah Rose
Bonita Danger Doll
Heaven Z'Dor
Jack Swallows
Josh Hart

Our MC for the night will be the one and only Feather Unsure!
Doors open at 6:30pm show starts at 7:00pm
This event is R18.

Jono's journey:

My Cancer Journey – (so far)
Early 2012 feeling tired, lethargic just not right, so I went to the Doctor after some hounding from a friend, Doctor was pretty convinced I was celiac so did some blood tests and some documents on diet change etc, about a week later I went back to get results, my doctor was away and so saw a locum, who looked at my iron levels and asked if I had had surgery or been bleeding a lot lately, he explained that those results were extremely low and he would not expect to see that unless I was a female at the height of her period. He suggested I might have a ulcer maybe which might be bleeding slowly enough not to show, so booked in for a gastroscopy – results from that were clear so decided to do a colonoscopy to eliminate everything else. Two days after the colonoscopy I was admitted to hospital with intense stomach pain, the following morning April 18th 2012 I was informed that I had an aggressive Tumor in my bowel – I was 37 years old being told I had aggressive CANCER – obviously I Broke – all my life I had basically be conditioned to believe cancer was it, the end, you done son.

I went through surgery to remove approx. 2foot of my lower intestine via a right hemi colectomy, approx. a week or so in hospital and then about a month later I started Chemotherapy for the 1st time, as a precautionary clean up option – 12 cycles, 6 months of treatment. Which can only be described as hell; Chronic Fatigue, Nausea, diarrhea, sleep issues, hair loss, cold sweats, no immune system and general feeling like shit 24/7.

I was checked initially every month, then every 3 months, then 6, then yearly out to 5 years where I would be deemed to be fully in remission and clear of cancer. This all went well; every time I got bloods done and checked I was all clear.

On my 5th year anniversary/check up expecting to be told what had become to be the usual and that everything was clear – take care, good luck bye bye have a nice life, NO……all of a sudden my bloods had spiked. So a CT scan of my bowel was scheduled which came back clear, so a new PET CT scan with the radioactive trace (can confirm still no super powers dang it) was arranged, from that it was discovered I had several Lesions on my right lung, biopsies were done and it was found that the lesions were in fact cancerous and it was the same as my original bowel cancer, it had very very slowly metastasized, decisions were then debated and it bounced around for a few months between the original Bowel and the respiratory departments as it was still Bowel cancer but it was in my lungs. Anyway after they fought it out I had 2/3 of my right lung removed, a decent stay in hospital until we could ensure my remaining lung lobe had inflated and that here was no air trapped in the cavity etc -(having the chest drain removed was one of the most painful experiences I have ever had).

Things seemed to be ok for another couple of years until my CEA blood levels spiked again and spiked quite high and continued to rise – so back to get chest and abdominal scans done – but this time nothing was showing …anywhere, yet my blood results continued to rise, I didn’t feel unwell at all with the exception of an injured lower back, and what I thought at the time was a compensatory issue in side, we monitored the situation over several months until we eventually found a small but growing tumor in my 9th intercostal (the pain in my side) and then another small one in my inner mammary – again these were biopsied and found to be metastasized tumors – we decided to try radiation, this was a 5 day intensive course to try shrink the tumor in my side - all we seemed to do though was make it angry and it hulked out as it reacted to the treatment – this pretty much felt as though someone was trying to pull my ribs apart (the other most painful thing I have ever experienced) Pain management was increased to 120mg of Morphine a day as well as fast acting Liquid for breakthrough pain.

Being the Radiation did not work we then decided to try Chemo again so another 12 cycles (6 months) of hellish shite (as described previously).

I have not long completed said 6 months of Chemo and am now on the recovery path back to normal life – I still have a tumor in my side and chest which we will continue to monitor - my cancer has been deemed incurable and I am deemed palliative care, while not terminal, this is now my life, fighting each instance as best we can as and when they occur

To be continued ……

In between times:
Volunteer for Canteen
2014 Fight for Christchurch Contender for Ronald McDonald House