Cancer patients in the rural town of Wairoa can keep getting chemotherapy treatment locally rather than travelling hours to Hastings Hospital.
It's thanks to a strong push from local nurses who quickly set up chemo treatments in Wairoa during Cyclone Gabrielle when the town was completely cut off.
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Chemo patients used to drive from Wairoa to Hastings Hospital for treatment - a more than three-hour round trip. But then Cyclone Gabrielle destroyed the road, leaving them in the lurch.
"There was a lot of fear from patients, just the unknown," said rural nurse specialist Nerys Williams.
Within 10 days of the cyclone hitting, clinical nurse manager Laura Ledger and her team had set up chemotherapy in Wairoa.
"Moving a service to a rural location isn't an easy thing to do but we had a strong team to help," she said.
Ledger, who is part of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Cancer Nurses College, said it's made a huge difference.
"Patients are happier, they're more rested and they're more hydrated before they come to their chemo appointments."
Patients like Jack Ruru, who told Newshub the trip to Hastings was exhausting.
"You know it was a whole day, you got up early and you were looking for money to gas up your car," he said.
Something he now doesn't have to worry about.
"There's no stress and you are with locals, family," said Ruru.
Williams has undergone extra training to deliver the treatment herself.
"Patients are just loving being able to get up in morning, come straight to local hospital, there's no travel and a familiar face," she said.
