Collecting kilometres for bowel cancer

In memory of her poppa Trev, Paeroa woman Tayla Smith is hitting the pavement, accumulating kilometres all for a good cause.
Tayla, 20, is taking part in the national Move Your Butt campaign throughout the month of February.
The initiative sees participants walking 100kms over 28 days in honour of the 100 Kiwis who die from bowel cancer every month.
Tayla’s poppa Trevor Smith, who also resided in Paeroa, was a bowel cancer survivor.
“[He was diagnosed] before I was born, so I don’t know much about it, but I know he had the surgeries to remove the bowel,” Tayla told The Profile. “He kind of lived his life, you know, dealing with the consequences that came after that, and there wasn’t much support in place for him, or he didn’t know there was.”
Poppa Trev passed away in 2024 – his death was unrelated to bowel cancer – and after coming across the Move Your Butt campaign, Tayla was inspired to raise funds for the cause.
“Poppa talked about it now and again, but I never asked about it, so I didn’t know anything about bowel cancer,” she said. “It wasn’t until I saw the Move Your Butt fundraiser that I actually did my research, and found out more about him.
“It’s been interesting to learn what he had been through, and what he’d survived, knowing that there’s such a high death rate.”
According to the campaign’s website, on average, eight New Zealanders are diagnosed with bowel cancer and three die from the disease every day.
It is the second highest cause of cancer death in the country, yet Bowel Cancer NZ is 100 per cent community funded and receives no government assistance.
“Move Your Butt is just a really great cause,” Tayla said. “There are a lot of consequences of the treatment that you go through that affect you for the rest of your life.
“And that’s why this fundraiser is so important, because I’m imagining how better poppa’s quality of life could have been with that support.”
Tayla is aiming to walk at least 4km a day to reach her goal of 100kms before the end of this month, and while she admitted she’s never particularly motivated to accumulate her kilometres, the support from the public has been a big push.
“I’ve learned that if I put my mind to something, I can achieve it, because so far I’ve done a lot of kilometres I didn’t think I’d do,” she said.
“And also, the community’s actually really lovely. I’ve had a lot of donations from people I don’t know, which is really heartwarming.”
DETAILS: To donate to Tayla’s fundraising efforts, visit moveyourbutt.org.nz/donate and search for ‘Tayla Smith’.