Jemima Gazley carried out a selfless campaign for research and funding into brain cancer in the final weeks she was succumbing to the disease.
Video / Supplied
Ashes of the brave Wellington teenager Jemima Gazley were scattered on the slopes of the Italian Alps earlier this month, a place the keen young skiier had dreamed to visit.
Fifteen-year-old Jemima Gazley died of an inoperable brain cancer last October, after capturing the hearts of New Zealand – spending her final weeks raising money for a cure she would not live to see.
Nearly $700k was eventually donated to Australian brain scientist Matt Dun, and Jemima was posthumously bestowed the New Zealand Herald’s 2021 Our Heroes award for her selfless campaign.
Following “the worst year of their lives”, Jemima’s parents Ray and Oliver and their two sons departed for Europe shortly before Christmas, deciding they could no longer live with regrets.
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“Jem was a real keen skiier so we went skiing in Italy, which would have been her dream,” her dad Oliver Gazley said.
“We’ve been dropping padlocks and coordinates – we did it in the Dolomites in the Italian Alps, and in Venice.
“We’re just thinking of places that we always talked about with her. I scattered some ashes while I was skiing in the Italian Alps on a fresh powder day, which was lovely.”
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An aspiring baker, Jemima had dreamed of eating pastries in Paris, where the family also planned to visit in the coming months.
“Just all the places we always talked about as a family, and the things we thought we would do as a family,” Oliver said.
“I guess you can’t live with the regrets anymore, no matter what it is – we’re doing it.”
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As Jemima had always dreamed of travelling Europe, Oliver said they had hoped to take their once-in-a-lifetime trip after she was first diagnosed last February, but soon realised this would not be possible with her condition.
Facing the Christmas period in their Wellington home, the Gazleys had decided to take the trip they had wanted to do with Jem.
Coming from New Zealand to Europe at the beginning of the Omicron outbreak had been a fascinating comparison, Oliver said.
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“It’s kind of fascinating seeing it from this side of the world because everything is normal here,” he said.
“We all wear masks and we have to show our vaccination certificates to go to restaurants. But everything else is just normal.”
The family had travelled through Italy and Portugal and said both countries were completely open for the fully vaccinated, with rapid antigen tests widely available.
“The thing that threw me the most was when we left New Zealand and landed in Italy, in Venice, we just walked straight through the airport – picked up our bags and walked out the other side.
“There was no temperature check … it was just straight into the country.”
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A country of around 10 million and a similar size to New Zealand, Portugal was seeing 30,000 to 50,000 cases a day, he said.
“We’ve just moved to Portugal and Portugal is even more relaxed – there’s still 30,000 cases here a day, but life is just normal.”
“I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do but it just seems right. Everyone’s getting on with it – it’s not ever going to go away, so we need to learn to live with it.”
With New Zealand’s borders still shut and no end in sight for MIQ, the Gazleys planned to continue travelling where the world is open.
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