TERESA (GOETTE) NICHOLSON 10-16-2022

King Country News
November 2, 2022
  · 
Legend leaves behind a lasting legacy
By Heather Carston
Editor
ANOTHER legend was lost to Te Kūiti two weeks ago. But few knew locally just how much of a national one she was. A US citizen until 2017, the impact Terre Nicolson had on New Zealand in her 12 years of living here was impressive. Professionally, the environmental engineer started her life in the uranium mines of New Mexico and ended up being one of just six women world-wide to carry the qualifications she did in that environment.
PIONEERING WOMAN
This was later transferred to what she once described as the “garbage” jobs as are found in environmental engineering. And while this may not sound much, it is when the following achievements are put into context. Terre in her professional capacity was responsible for examples such as the following:
• being the technical lead for the contamination investigations for the Transmission Gully Highway and Western Ring route;
• developing a method for removing co-mingled mercury and asbestos from concrete, for Transpower which meant over 40,000 tonnes of concrete was suitable for reuse and diverted from landfill;
• rapidly assessing large farming sites by using drones for the initial site observations and sampling only areas most likely to be contaminated. This enabled assessment of large plots of land with minimal sampling and analysis, while still assuring protection of future site residents;
• managing and developing the technical requirements for contaminated land projects in nearly every Waikato District;
• designing remediation for asbestos and lead-contaminated soil for a site in Matamata, where a former dairy factory had used the site as a dump;
• practicing as the environmental adviser for the deconstruction of the Port Taranaki power station, Transpower’s asbestos identification and management programme, and the Port of Nelson dredging study;
• being responsible for the management of a remediation system for a multiple-aquifer clean-up for the Phoenix-Goodyear Airport Superfund, US;
• being the technical leader and project manager for a $45 million remediation project in California that saw a 100-ha former military installation transformed into a residential development.
UNDER THE RADAR
While much of this kind of work was kept under the radar because of its sensitive nature, Terre was also well known nationally for her hard work in pushing the Government and Pharmac into the 21st Century in terms of the provision of necessary and internationally well-known drug Ibrance to treat breast cancer. She went head-to-head with then-Health Minister David Parker, Pharmac, the Select Committee and others,­ and all of this after receiving a terminal diagnosis after a return of her breast cancer in 2012. With the backing of cancer groups such as Metavivors, Sweet Louise and others, a march in Wellington to the Beehive in 2018 saw 250 terminally ill breast cancer patients and their supporters present a petition for the treatment – and the petition was taken on the steps of Parliament by a record 17 MPs. 
RECORD TIME FRAME
It was also a record time frame of three weeks later that Pharmac back-tracked and announced it would fund both Ibrance and one other drug for the treatment of breast cancer. The leadup to the victory was not an easy time for Terre. She was “trolled and bullied”, and “accused of being on the payroll for big pharmaceutical companies, of taking drug funding away from other cancers by forcing the issue. It wasn’t a pleasant time,” as she mentioned in a Waitomo News article of October 1, 2020.
DEEP SENSE OF LOSS
Her passing was greeted on social media by Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC), Metavivors, Sweet Louise and others with whom she was associated, with dismay and a deep sense of loss, many describing her sense of humour, zest for life despite the diagnosed shortened version of it, and her ability to find a positive in just about every aspect as an inspirational loss that would be hard to replace. Moderators of BCAC said: “Terre was an invaluable organiser and empathetic moderator of Metavivors. A courageous and inspirational leader who took responsibility and fought for the welfare of others. She initiated the Ibrance petition, combined it with Sue Wall-Cade’s Kadcyla petition and took these to Parliament and the Health Select Committee along with her Metasisters. Terre was an agent for positive change. A valuable, active member of the BCAC Committee. “An engineer by profession, she was highly intelligent, a great analyst of complex situations and a solution-finder. We loved her razor-sharp wit, her hilarious, irreverent sense of humour. “It wasn’t just her availability to be a listening and supportive ear to others.”  From a personal perspective, Terre also got involved in the Paws 4 life charity, first in Wellington, then in Hamilton at the time of her terminal diagnosis.
The feline-passionate woman was known to pick up cats and organise them to be adopted into ‘forever’ homes through the charity, and didn’t hesitate to travel or spend her own funds to do so.
Terre was also a trustee for the Maara Kai Roopu,the community garden in Te Kūiti, which intends to honour her work with them in a sensory garden being established. “The support and mahi she has put into Maniapoto Maara Kai Roopu is the reason we are where we are today,” the trust said on its facebook page. “But most of all she was a true friend and I’m going to miss her so much.
“Maniapoto Maara Kai Roopu is going to dedicate our sensory garden in memory of Terre; she loved the idea, it was her suggestion and I’m just sad she wasn’t able to see it finished.” Her journey to live in and around New Zealand, a place and the people of which she loved with passion, came about after a chance meeting with a Dunedin train driver, Mike Nicholson while she was visiting the country. Mike later followed her to the US, where they married before returning and after stints in Christchurch “just before the big earthquake” and Wellington, the couple settled in Te Kūiti.
And given the legend she was, how apt that it should have been her final home. Terre passed on October 16, aged 66 years, survived by her husband Mike and her much-adored cats.