In July of this year, Queenstown-based Liam Allan was inspired to organise an event through his company Coathanger Productions. A Night to Remember was hosted by Searchlight Brewery and raised funds for a number of NZ charities. Kenzie’s Gift is so grateful to have been one of the charities Liam chose to benefit from the event, which brought people together in a celebration of life and acknowledgement of loss.

Liam’s goal was also to get more people talking about death and grief.

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‘Death is a big taboo. It’s trying to lift the lid on that; talking about it needs to be more normalised. People feel isolated when they go through it. It’s almost like there’s this elephant in the room... There is a lot of miseducation or misunderstandings around it. And it’s not about coming up with advice, or ways of getting on with it. It’s about having someone listen.’

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Liam knows firsthand what this feels like. In late February 2026, he was on the first day of a three-week tour around the South Island with his dad, celebrated wildlife cameraman Doug Allan. They received a call that Liam’s mum had had a sudden major health event and was on life support in the UK. Doug encouraged Liam to send a voice message that could be played to his mum while she was in a coma-like state. Liam values having had his dad with him when he received the news. ‘We had this amazing opportunity to deal with it together... I was quite impatient and frustrated, I had all these emotions that I was carrying from losing my mum, but we managed to deliver the tour and everything went really well.’

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One month later, just two weeks after the last stop on their South Island tour, Liam was travelling to the UK for his mum’s funeral when he received a call that his dad was in a critical condition in Nepal, having suffered a brain haemorrhage while on a trek to Annapurna base camp.

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Liam decided to continue onto the UK as planned for his mum’s funeral. He now did for his dad what he’d only recently done for his mum, recording a voice message that could be played to his dad, now on life support in hospital. Liam describes spending the plane journey working through checklists of his parents’ affairs. ‘I think I’m fairly organised, and I guess that’s my way of processing. I just thought: ok, what do I need to do now I’ll be dealing with two deaths – what admin is there? Meanwhile I was logging into the plane’s Wi-Fi to find out what stage things were at with my dad.’

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On arrival in the UK, Liam was able to focus on his mum’s side of the family and attend her celebration of life. He then extended his time in the UK to manage all the practicalities of both parents’ deaths. ‘My dad was a man of science, so he wanted his organs donated. But because of how his death happened, it just wasn’t possible. The hospital in Nepal agreed to take his body on for medical research. This meant dealing with the Commonwealth Foreign Office, which was the government body trying to organise this process.’ Liam describes the surreal experience of taking delivery of his mum’s ashes at her home in London while on the phone to the foreign office discussing the release of his dad’s body to the hospital in Nepal. 

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‘We managed to organise it with the hospital. It was good, it was what he would have wanted.’

Memorial events were held for Liam’s dad in the UK, in Bristol and in Scotland. ‘It was lovely to hear stories from people who had worked with him back in the 60s, those who had worked with him more recently, and even some who had spent time with him in the two weeks between NZ and Nepal. They’d all said how happy he was with the NZ tour, and so proud of what was being achieved...’

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‘Because of my dad’s profile, there have been so many messages from people. And it’s lovely, but at the same time you get overwhelmed, it’s a bit bittersweet... Sometimes it’s people with a story to tell, and that’s really nice because you get these little glimpses of history. People who were touched by my dad’s legacy, with stories of how inspired they were, or about a moment that they’ll hold forever. And they bring a bit of brightness to your day.’

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Liam shares that settling back into life in NZ has had its challenges. ‘It’s those moments when you think, this is when I’d normally pick up the phone... it feels like there’s a big hole, and it affects your motivation and drive.’ 

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‘The problem with the current day and age is that with social media, most of what people post is positive... And the algorithms hide a lot of the negative stuff from you anyway. So again, that’s where you can feel really lonely or isolated. And people need to understand that it’s ok not to feel ok... you’ve got to allow yourself that time to process it. And it’s not moving on, it’s not getting over it: it’s moving forward with it.’

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Tēnā koe Liam. Thank you, from all of us in the Kenzie’s Gift community, for your support of tamariki and rangatahi around the country.