From yoga and gym four times a week to hospital wards and chemotherapy, Hamiltonian Amanda Shanley, 60, never imagined she’d be among the one in eight Kiwis that are diagnosed with a form of blood cancer every day. But in May, after a netball injury landed her in hospital, she received a life-changing diagnosis that rocked her and her family’s world forever: she had multiple myeloma , a form of cancer affecting plasma cells in the bone marrow. “People still can’t believe I’ve got multiple myeloma, they say I still look like the healthiest person .
.. There were no signs, so that’s why I want to raise awareness.
” Shanley said she had always been an active person and she used to play netball before damaged ligaments in her knee caused her to have a break from the sport. In May this year, after 18 years, she decided to make a return to the netball court..