Mark Taylor/Stuff
Steve Ioane, right, mans the barbecue with Ra Bacon, left, and Raewyn Carter at the opening of a new playground in Ngāruawāhia.
A police officer who died from cancer is being remembered for his hardworking nature, his kindness and his love for the many communities he served.
Steve Ioane, a New Zealand-born Samoan, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in March last year, and sadly died about 12 months later, on March 16.
Much of his last year was spent fundraising for an immunotherapy treatment called Keytruda that was only funded for melanoma patients in New Zealand.
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Pharmac has reached provisional agreements to fund the drugs branded Keytruda and Tecentriq.
Akerei Maresala-Thomson, who had been friends with Ioane since they met in Police College, said a lot of donations came through after RNZ published a story about cancer patients self-funding treatments.
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