Our son, Benji Knight was diagnosed with a rare osteo sarcoma on his lower right femur on 17th Dec 2018. Two days later myself, Benji’s father and Benji were up in Christchurch and staying at Rānui House. This was arranged at very short notice, while Benji’s course of chemotherapy and his knee replacement operation details were mapped out.
Chemotherapy started on 27th Dec 2018 and continued a 3 week on (where we stayed at Rānui House) 2 weeks off (at home in Queenstown) until the final completion date of 28th July 2019.
During those 8 months, Rānui House was an absolute home away from home. The setup with standalone apartments, commercial class cooking facilities, off road car and bike parking and last but most certainly not least, a fantastic team to whom nothing was an issue, made our time in Christchurch far easier than it could have been.
Rānui’s proximity to the Christchurch Gardens and to the Christchurch Hospital meant that it was easy for me to look after Benji when he was in hospital and for Benji to spend time recovering in the Gardens between courses.
Because Benji had such a stable environment in Christchurch, and because he’s such a big strong lad at 24, he’s been able to stick with his chemotherapy course from start to finish giving him as good a chance as possible of completely recovering from his cancer.
A couple of the senior nurses on the Oncology ward at Christchurch Hospital said that he was able to withstand more of the chemo potions than anyone else that they have dealt with. He had a really compromised immune system several times during his treatment but other than that his treatment proceeded relatively smoothly.
A huge part of Benji’s successful journey has been down to having a stable, supportive Rānui House home environment provided by the wonderful Rānui team.
Many thanks. John & Benji Knight
