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Comedian Dai Henwood, who has just finished his latest round of chemotherapy following his cancer diagnosis, is getting together with some of the biggest names in comedy to host The Comedy Treatment, a night of stand-up comedy to raise money for the Cancer Society.
Henwood is one of our best-known comedians, star of Dancing With The Stars, Seven Days, Family Feud and Legomasters.
The stand-up comedy show fundraiser will be live on Three at 8.30pm this Thursday.
Henwood said he did not think stand-up comedy had been done live on television in New Zealand before.
"It's a stand-up comedy show, it's not about cancer, obviously I have a few musings on it, but it's not about cancer itself because I'm aware how individual everyone's journey is."
Henwood said he did not want to make light of cancer but did joke around a bit about some of the medical procedures associated with it.
The other comedians include Josh Thompson, Justine Smith, Mel Bracewell, Chris Parker and Ben Hurley, he said.
Henwood said the Cancer Society had provided him and his wife with free counselling when he was first diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer, including suggestions about how to broach the subject with his children.
"For me it was very much around framing things for children, around getting some tools, around like dealing in small timelines, and being honest but not overwhelming children with information, having some therapists who actually deal with cancer."
The provision of free counselling from therapists who specialised in cancer helped enormously, he said.
"The fact that it's free is just such a weight off, 'cause I know the second a cancer diagnosis happens, I lost just so much work through having to go into treatment - your money source dries up yet all your regular bills are still there."
A cancer diagnosis also affected the patient's partner and the partner also needed support, he said.
"It is a diagnosis for two and there's a reason why I say that, I believe the partners of the cancer patient pretty much go through the same mental trauma, just not the physical trauma of the treatment ... and they're trying to keep that brave face on, the admin of a household ticking over while the patient is actually receiving treatment."
Henwood said his chemo took about 48 hours but it then took another couple of days to come out of that.
He said he knew when he was first diagnosed with cancer that he wanted to go public about it.
"But I didn't really want to do it when I was still in the very early stages and in a sort of woe is me, what's going on situation.
"I wanted to wait till I could go public ... [to] tell my story in a way that would resonate with people who are going through the same thing I am, who know someone who is, and maybe through tell my story I could help some people in some way."
Henwood said he was "blown away" by the support he had received saying he got thousands of messages over the first couple of days.
Since then Henwood said he had been doing what he could, including making TikTok videos to help people going through treatment with any tips he had learnt.
"I've done a lot of this while I'm through chemo, I've just finished my twentieth round, I got unplugged from that yesterday and I now go into a part where I have four or five months off treatment, so I'm feeling pretty blessed and I'm ready to saddle up for an awesome end of the year."
One of the videos was about dealing with needles, something Henwood said he had been scared of.
"I'm old enough to have had the MMR vaccination in assembly, when I was 11 I think it was, and that was probably my first memorable interaction with a needle and I just passed out."
Henwood said he has used some meditation techniques to help him deal with needles and injections.
"I've got a little bit of training in meditation and so forth and used a few sort of tips from that around breathing and visualisation to get to grips with it - and now I barely even think about them."
Cancer patients often have "massive decision fatigue" in terms of having to make decisions about treatment and which drugs are working for them and which are not, Henwood said.
"So when someone says to me 'is there anything I can do', even though this comes from such an amazing place, it can be quite stressful for the patient cause it's sort of another decision to think about."
People who wanted to support cancer patients could show their support through action instead, he said.
"So instead of asking someone 'what can I do for you?' just do something. You know if you're close with them, if you often look after their kids or something, just come round and go 'hey I'm grabbing your kids and we're going to go out on a mission today' or bring around their favourite food that you know, or just make up a little pack."
Henwood said his mantra throughout his cancer journey had been "optimism won't cure me, but pessimism will kill me".
