Joanna Sharpe – Community Ambassador
Ultra-endurance cyclist, Joanna Sharpe, is a staunch ambassador of Bowel Cancer New Zealand and always has an epic challenge on the go. She became involved with the charity after becoming close friends with former professional cyclist Britt Mill (nee Chambers) who passed away at age 33 from bowel cancer in 2020.
“She was sunshine, she was exciting, kind and caring and for all of those reasons we struck up a really strong friendship.”
Joanna also had pre-cancerous polyps detected and removed through a colonoscopy a few years ago and said she felt incredibly fortunate to have avoided bowel cancer.
In February 2021 Joanna became the first woman to complete The Long White Ride, which demands participants to cycle the length of New Zealand almost non-stop. She rode over 2,100km, biking from Cape Reinga to Bluff in six days and nine hours. She says records (like a Guinness world record) are nice to have but her main reason for sitting in the saddle for just under a week was to help raise awareness for Bowel Cancer New Zealand.
“For me, the main driver for this is that I had a good friend, Britt Mill, who through misdiagnosis by medical professionals meant that she received a terminal diagnosis for bowel cancer in her early 30s. And to me that is traumatising. There’s no need for that.
“If my pain brought the attention to a cause that meant one family didn’t have to experience losing a loved one, it would be all worth it. That was honestly what kept me going.”
Along the ride, Joanna recalls seeing a number of people who had lost loved ones coming out to show support.
“It actually chokes me up to even talk about it now. I remember a particular mum and dad, they were there with a photo of their son who had passed away from bowel cancer. They were there just to thank me for raising awareness.”
Joanna says her own experience a couple of years ago with a potential bowel cancer scare was how people should be treated.
“I was suffering from extreme bloating. When I say extreme, you could have mistaken me for being late term with twins. I had huge changes to my bowel habits, I was suffering from cramping and spasms that were so severe I could neither sit down or stand up.”
So Joanna went to her doctor and they sent her to a gastroenterologist straight away. “They found precancerous polyps in my colon which they removed. It was so easy. I was sedated and couldn’t even tell you I was having a colonoscopy.”
But that was not the case for her close friend, who spent the last 18 months of her life raising awareness among young people.
“Britt had all of the same symptoms, together with fatigue. She experienced a lot of weight loss and went to the doctors for six years and was repeatedly told it was anxiety, it was irritable bowel syndrome, you name it, they suggested it.
“By the time she got an accurate diagnosis, unfortunately, the bowel cancer was so advanced that it was terminal. So I think Britt and I give you complete opposite sides of the spectrum of what can happen.”