A PERSONAL intervention from a neighbouring business was required to get Waitomo District Council to clean up the Flower Fairy’s display window after someone defecated on it.
“I said we don’t have a hose and it’s poos,” business owner Christine Flexman said.
“And if we take to it with a bowl of water, how do we get rid of that? How do we clean that up?”
She said she was advised to “pay a commercial cleaner to go and do it”.
Chrissy was going to clean it up herself, just to get rid of it, but Janet Rogers told her she was not going to do that – and went off to visit the council.
“Janet said you cannot clean that up; you are immune compromised; you don’t know what is in that.”
Chrissy is undergoing chemotherapy for stage four cancer.
“I do agree with her, but I just didn’t want people to come to our shop and go, ‘Oh my god! Why haven’t they cleaned that up’?
“It is just disgusting that someone’s intentionally shat on the window.”
There was a nearby garden as an option, Chrissy said.
The council initially said the contractor, Inframax, would clean up only what was on the public footpath. But on seeing the situation, the contractor cleaned up the lot.
“The point is, why should we have to do that as well?”
Waitomo District Council communications and engagement leader Jenelle Burnell said the council was advised of the matter in the morning.
A service request to the appropriate team was raised, and action was undertaken by the appropriate council contractor.
Christine’s diagnosis came out of the blue, after a routine hospital procedure ended up triggering pancreatitis. After being sent for a CT scan that showed liver abnormalities, she then underwent an MRI and gastric biopsies which confirmed the news of advanced gastric cancer.
She has a Givealittle page – givealittle.co.nz/cause/christines-cancer-treatment-journey, which is raising funding for keytruda immunotherapy treatment. This is a Medsafe approved treatment unfunded by Phamac with an estimated $90,000 cost.
