The widow of cancer care campaigner Blair Vining has revealed how her husband used legal medical cannabis without permission before his death.
As part of Newshub's Because it Matters series, National Correspondent Patrick Gower went to Southland to catch up with Missy Vining for the first time since her husband's death.
Missy has opened up about an anonymous $250,000 donation to help their campaign for better cancer care - and revealed how Blair used a cannabis product to help ease his pain.
Missy says Blair used the prescription-medicine CBD without legal sign-off. They were passed it by a friend.
"The part of passing prescribed drugs [is] very illegal. Obviously that is not how I live my
life, doing it illegally," she says.
"But you get to the point… we tried to access it legally and it was too difficult."
Missy says the medical cannabis worked for her husband.
"The CBD oil made a massive difference to his appetite and he started to gain about a kilo a week from the time he was on that," she says.
Unfortunately, Blair passed away in October, aged 39. But Missy is reminded every day of how her husband touched New Zealand.
"This is the box of the cards that have been turning up for the last six weeks," she says.
Missy is determined to continue her mission and keep her promises to Blair.
"To make sure that on every day when I don't feel like getting up or carrying on without him that I am there with those girls being a good mum," she says.
Their daughters are also moving forward, Lilly stepping up to collect the New Zealander of the Year Local Hero award for Blair on Wednesday.
He is not eligible for the overall New Zealander of the Year as the rules say candidates must be alive.
"Toward the end he was trying to joke he would stay alive until February so he could win New Zealander of the Year," Missy says.
Missy received a local hero award too, for her work towards another promise to Blair - a charity hospital for Southland, where locals get quality cancer care.
That's getting closer to reality, thanks to Kiwi generosity.
"A man had phoned and wanted to anonymously donate $250,000 and he just wanted to give it to the charity hospital," she says.
"And it was just like 'wow!' And it was like a big 'you gotta keep going' and I could hear Blair saying 'right, stop crying, slap your leg and move forward and get the hospital going'."
Blair did live to see one of his big achievements - a national cancer agency, aimed at eliminating what's called "postcode cancer".
"They're forecasting that half of New Zealanders [are] to be affected by cancer in 20 years time. We are so behind the eight-ball now," she says.
The agency's work could not be more urgent.
"We receive in excess of 100 messages a day on Blair's Facebook," she says.
"And those messages are people that have been misdiagnosed, [face] long waits, can't access the care they need."
