On Top of Her Game
After a distinguished coaching career it’s not surprising that New Zealand netball matriarch, Lois Muir had a game plan when she faced a breast cancer diagnosis. Words: Jo Bailey
It was one Friday in August 1998 that Lois Muir found out she had breast cancer, a day before she was scheduled to fly to Hamilton to prepare her Wellington team for the national champs the following week. “I didn’t want the girls to get caught up in it so didn’t tell them about my cancer diagnosis until the debriefing after the tournament. The team had finished as runners-up and one of the girls said, ‘if we’d known beforehand we would have won for you’. I told them that if I had to be crook for them to win they were there for the wrong reasons.”
Lois, who has been awarded an OBE and has been made a distinguished companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to netball and administration, says that at the time of her diagnosis she was determined to keep busy and keep looking forward. With the ‘bush telegraph’ rife in netball circles, she assured her team that she had a game plan and expected them to be her disciples. “When people asked me how I was I always used to say ‘I’m well’. I asked the girls to do the same - to tell people that I was on the case and managing fine. If you want support from people it’s your own positive action that gets you that.”
Lois was asked by a nurse if she wanted to keep her diagnosis a secret, but she knew it was something she didn’t want to hide, especially given her high profile. “I’m a great believer in communication. There used to be quite a stigma attached to breast cancer but it’s much better now. If you can talk about your diagnosis and people can see that you are handling it pretty well you get a lot of support. When women try to keep it a secret other people don’t know whether to ask how they are, or might even cross the street so they don’t have to speak to them.” She says she had fantastic support from her late husband, Murray, and their three boys.
“They were all involved in the discussions and we even looked at a video of a breast reconstruction together. A family handles it better if they stick together and it teaches family members how to deal with other difficult things they might face in life.”
In 1999 Lois fronted the Breast Cancer Appeal campaign, which raised further awareness of her brush with the disease. “I suppose it made people think, ‘if someone as fit and healthy as Lois Muir can get cancer, anyone can’. It’s amazing that even now I have people come up to me and say that they know that I’ve had breast cancer and they want to tell me their stories. I think that’s nice. There are so many women who have had challenges and have stories to tell.”
As her mother and sister both had breast cancer in their 50s, Lois had always been vigilant about regular breast screening. “When I reached 60 I thought ‘Yay! I’m not going to get it, but an ultra-sound did eventually pick up a small lump.” She decided to have a full mastectomy and had radiotherapy after a couple of lymph nodes were also affected. “When I started the radium treatment I emptied my diary for a couple of months. I deliberately didn’t try to do too much too soon. If I was tired I would have a kip during the day or would get out in the garden if I had some energy. It’s a bit like getting over the flu or any other illness - it does take a little bit of time to come back to the levels you want to be at.”
After her treatment Lois took part in a five-year research programme at Otago Hospital.
“I happened to be the right age and had the right type of cancer for the trial, so I was very happy to do it. I never found out whether I was taking Tamoxifen or the new American drug they were trialling, but I was lucky that I didn’t have any side effects.”
These days, Lois has her once a year ‘warrant of fitness’. Since her diagnosis she has made a conscious effort to eat more fruit and ‘salady things’. She takes an anti-oxidant and a few vitamins, but isn’t on any medication. “Women who come through a trauma such as breast cancer have achieved as much as a high performance athlete - it takes an incredible amount of mental toughness. I think that doctors are a bit like a coach on the sideline as ultimately it is up to the women to take responsibility and to fight.”
At 73, Lois is far from retired. She is in her second year as President of Netball New Zealand, a busy role that sees her travelling to numerous games. “I thoroughly enjoy the role which has helped to fill the gap left by coaching.” (She retired from coaching at 70).
Lois played both netball and basketball for New Zealand and went on to coach the Silver Ferns for 15 years, during which time they won two World Championships. Along with coaching several regional New Zealand teams she has served as an administrator for Netball New Zealand, the Hillary Commission, the Sports Foundation, the Masters Games, the NZ Academy of Sport South Island (from which she has just stepped down as Chair after seven years but is still on the Board) and the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, into which she was inducted in 1993. With the advent of the semi-professional trans-Tasman netball league leaving a void at the beginning of the season for the next tier of players, the 12 regions agreed to set up the month-long ‘Lois Muir Challenge’ this year. “I was hesitant about having a competition named after me but sometimes we have to do things in our lives that rattle our cage a bit. It is a fantastic competition for the development of the second tier of New Zealand players.”
Lois says she likes having ‘little projects’ to keep her busy. When a friend bought a second pharmacy in Dunedin, Lois agreed to work there four hours a day to cover the lunch hours. “It’s lovely when an opportunity like this comes along at my age. I enjoy it - it gets me out and about and meeting people.”
Age has no real relevance to Lois, who says, “You’re only as old as you feel – just take down the mirrors and it doesn’t matter”. She still gets up on scaffolding and climbs ladders to paint the exterior of her house and admits to ‘throttling the weeds’ in the garden if she’s having a bit of a down day. “I used to throttle the weeds for a month if we had a disappointing World Champs,” she laughs. Of late she has started reading novels, something she has had little time to do in the past. “I read anything I can lay my hands on, which to me feels quite frivolous and a real luxury.”
She encourages women to be active and look after their wellbeing throughout their lives. “It’s a bit like investing in the bank - you have to invest something to get the good reward and interest out at the end. It is also important to look after our ‘me’ time. It is something we think we can do without, but we really can’t as it recharges our motors.”
Lois says she believes in moving forward and not looking over her shoulder too much. “I like to be of the mindset that there are exciting things ahead. The new day might require a bit of a different tactical angle but the important thing is to keep going forward.”
