Peter Besseling

With his late wife’s blessing, retired teacher Peter Besseling is travelling the country sharing their story to raise funds for the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute to support its efforts to make cancer treatment more accessible, affordable and less intrusive.

It’s a nomadic lifestyle the 76-year-old took on in 2017 after his late wife, Lyn, passed away with the most common and the most aggressive form of brain cancer, glioblastoma.

“I travel around New Zealand and talk about the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute and share Lyn’s story as she was highly in favour of the efforts of the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute Founder and Executive Director Dr Swee Tan,” Mr Besseling says. “Lyn gave her permission for details of her cancer to be made available to the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute, and while she won’t have the benefit of Tan’s team’s research, we know that our efforts are helping and could be of benefit at some point in the future.”

In January 2022, the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute released results from the phase I clinical trial on glioblastoma that showed promising results. The trial used repurposed medicines, which is a new treatment approach, by targeting cancer stem cells using a combination of low-cost, off-patent, safe oral medications. Gillies McIndoe Research Institute has designed and received regulatory approvals for a larger phase II clinical trial. 

Mr Besseling, who taught at Wel Tec for 26 years, says his focus is on promoting the work of the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute, supporting fundraising efforts, and delivering brochures. He is one of many of Gillies McIndoe Research Institute’s Ambassadors who support the organisation through their word and deed.

Lyn was a special needs teacher and first developed breast cancer in 2003. After 12 years of treatment, she was finally cleared of breast cancer, only to then develop glioblastoma four months later. “It was a very difficult situation as the brain cancer is difficult to pinpoint, and the treatment is ultimately unsuccessful.”

It was then the couple began donating to the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute. “We also discussed what I was going to do, and we decided to sell our lifestyle property and animals and buy a campervan to go around New Zealand and talk to people.”

The Gillies McIndoe Research Institute gave permission for the campervan to be sign written and covered with paua butterflies, the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute’s logo, and he is now known as the ‘Butterfly Man.’   

“I talk to people about adopting a healthy diet and lifestyle,” he says. “ The Gillies McIndoe Research Institute supply me with some printed material, and I ask people to support by giving what they can afford.”

“I don’t know how much funds my efforts have raised for the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute, and I don’t need to know that to be motivated. I think if 20,000 people donated $50 a year to the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute, then that’s $1 million, and that’s motivation enough for me.

“It gives me an opportunity to be useful and to honour my late wife, Lyn,” Mr Besseling says.