Meet Erica

Erica Donovan has known she wanted to be a nurse for almost her whole life.

The primary healthcare nurse, who has previously worked in paediatric oncology, is passionate about minimising trauma and anxiety in children because she understands how much a childhood cancer diagnosis can impact you in the long term. She knows because she has experienced it herself.

Diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at just two and a half, Erica says her first-hand experience has made her the nurse she is today.

“I can understand what the families are going through and connect with the children,” she says. “I know what it’s like to be scared and feel like you can’t control what’s happening to you.”

Now in her early thirties, Erica is working to raise awareness around the long-term effects of childhood cancer. She struggled with maths in school and found that learning shorthand was particularly difficult when she began studying journalism at university. It wasn’t until a diagnosis from a psychologist that she discovered these challenges were late effects of childhood cancer.

Rather than breaking her confidence, Erica found this diagnosis empowering.

“It helped me see that despite everything I’ve been through, I can work to my strengths and still have a really successful career,” she says.

Erica’s dedication to helping children and families going through similar experiences is shared by her mum, Christine, who has worked for Child Cancer Foundation since 1995. Now a Senior Family Support Coordinator in Dunedin, Christine brings genuine knowledge and compassion to her support of families navigating childhood cancer.

For Erica, going through cancer as a child has given her a sense of having a second chance at life.

“It motivates me to keep going because I know there are so many people who worked so hard to save me,” she says. “I have to take advantage of that.”