Capital Questions with Brooke Butler

Jour­ney of Hope is designed to help those who need assist­ance with med­ic­al treat­ment, medi­cine, travel and liv­ing costs, and with the char­ity Eng­lish-born Brooke has set out to inspire a young­er gen­er­a­tion and instil hope in our most vul­ner­able mem­bers of soci­ety. Fish­Head was able to grab a minute in Brooke’s busy sched­ule to meet with the Vic­tor­ia Uni­ver­sity stu­dent and hos­pit­al­ity guru at his loc­al cof­fee spot, Poquito.

I try to find a gem in every sub­urb, and my favour­ites are… Rinski Kor­sakov in Ber­ham­pore, Char­ley Noble on Post Office Square, Havana Bar on Wigan Street, Sprig & Fern on Tinakori Road and The Ramen Shop in New­town. There is some­thing just down­right per­fect about some steamed pork belly buns fol­lowed by a spiced chick­en ramen bowl. Lush!

I’ll be work­ing up a sweat… late in the even­ings at Snap Fit­ness oppos­ite my apart­ment. I go every night to clear my head and get in as much train­ing as I can for future endur­ance events such as Tough Mud­der 2015 and my run to Mar­tin­bor­ough in late Septem­ber (I’m run­ning from the Wel­ling­ton CBD to Mar­tin­bor­ough in 24 hours to raise money for Jour­ney of Hope).

I can’t go past a hearty feed at… Poquito on Tory Street, eat­ing Span­ish baked eggs with cho­ri­zo and a couple of short blacks to fuel me. Mike and Bryn are always lay­ing ‘the usu­al’ in front of me. Per­fect little spot — and so close to home. 

My Sundays con­sist of… being up early, dodging fel­low early-risers down at the Sunday mar­ket by Te Papa in an attempt to buy some ingredi­ents I most likely won’t use and a Nutella-filled churro. Sundays are usu­ally the most stress­ful day of my week, but as I am not drink­ing for the entirety of 2014, hangovers do not play a part, just lack of cof­fee. 

If I’m in need of a decent cof­fee, you’ll find me… chilling at the Flight Cof­fee Hangar. They boast the best cof­fee, roast the best cof­fee and have the best baris­tas to back-up each argu­ment. Can’t beat an Aero­press from Nick!

For a slice of cul­ture, I’ll head to… a live music event, of any genre. Be that live jazz music at Havana Bar, or listen­ing to Fred V & Grafix live at Bodega — an epic music duo from Exeter, back home in Blighty.

Uni­ver­sity keeps me on my toes, and my favour­ite study spot is… sur­roun­ded by stacks of dense, old books, cof­fee cups and oth­er semi-stu­di­ous indi­vidu­als on level three of the Vic lib­rary in Kelburn.

My biggest motiv­a­tion behind Jour­ney of Hope is… the sheer num­ber of people that go unknown, suf­fer­ing alone, with rare ill­ness and dis­ease. These people motiv­ate me to get off my arse, because I can help them. Although I have no med­ic­al know­ledge, I can raise enough money and aware­ness to get them the help they deserve from the best health­care pro­fes­sion­als we can find.

I am inspired by… the strength of people I have met that do not com­plain, even when they suf­fer with such pain­ful ill­ness. Those who are emo­tion­ally drained, energy-sapped, yet still give every­one the time of day they deserve. My Papa was such an indi­vidu­al. A D‑Day vet­er­an with hero­ic stor­ies, who saved the lives of many. I aim to be half the man he was. I have a long way to go.

I will nev­er for­get… Caitlin Hawthorn. There are no words that can truly describe what she was to every­one who ever met her. Faced with a rare form of can­cer, she was strong, resi­li­ent and beau­ti­ful, and one of the most, if not the most, caring per­son I have ever had the chance to call my friend. She is the reas­on I set up Jour­ney of Hope, to help her.