Built Through Adversity.
Driven by Advocacy.
Designed for Impact.
Catherine Cooke has spent a lifetime turning adversity into action, leadership into impact, and lived experience into powerful advocacy creating real-world change for thousands of Kiwis and immigrants. In 2024, while receiving three life-saving blood transfusions from her hospital bed, she grew a national petition to 17,096 signatures, sparked national headlines, and became a finalist for the 2025 New Zealand Herald Hero of the Year.
A Lifetime Of Building, Leading, Giving Back, And Rising Again.
90 Staff
Built a multi-group business empire from home into a nationally recognised operation employing close to 90 people.
Global Innovation
Created a franchise-style operational model never previously developed in that industry.
Thousands Of Businesses Supported
Worked alongside businesses nationwide through strategy, leadership, culture, growth, and reinvention.
$76,000 Raised For Muriwai
Created and delivered a major fundraising event following Cyclone Gabrielle.
February 2025
$20,000 Raised During Cancer Treatment
Continued advocacy and fundraising work during active treatment in support of Dress for Success.
6,000 Garments Donated
Delivered a major Dress for Success event shortly after spinal and bariatric surgery.
Strategic Advocacy. Storytelling. Influence. Momentum.
Advoacy & Campaign Strategy
Storytelling & Narrative Positioning
Strategic Advisory & Speaking
Engagement Options
Engagement Options
Engagement Options
Building advocacy campaigns that create visibility, traction, pressure, and meaningful public engagement.
This includes:
- campaign creation
- public narrative strategy
- petition development
- media positioning
- stakeholder messaging
- advocacy momentum planning
- community engagement strategy
Turning lived experience, organisational purpose, and human stories into powerful narratives that connect emotionally and drive action.
This includes:
- strategic storytelling
- personal and organisational narratives
- media feature positioning
- keynote messaging
- social impact storytelling
- public-facing communication strategy
Helping organisations, leadership teams, and advocacy movements navigate adversity, influence, communication, resilience, and impact.
Speaking topics include:
- advocacy through adversity
- resilience and rebuilding
- women’s health
- healthcare inequity
- leadership under pressure
- navigating grief, loss, and reinvention
- purpose-driven leadership
Advocacy Strategy Intensive
FROM:
$3,000 + GST
Advocacy Campaign Partnership
FROM:
$5,000–$15,000+GST
Story Development Sessions
FROM:
$2,500 + GST
Full Narrative & Media Positioning
FROM:
$5,000–$10,000 + GST
Keynote Speaking
FROM:
$5,000 + GST
Advisory Sessions
FROM:
$1,500 + GST
RISE exists to help organisations, causes, and communities amplify their voice, build strategic momentum, and create meaningful impact.
This work combines:
- advocacy
- strategic communication
- storytelling
- media positioning
- campaign execution
- lived experience
- leadership under pressure
to create movements that cannot easily be ignored.
February 2025 Petition Launch
Catherine launched a national petition calling for funded access to Keytruda for early-stage triple negative breast cancer patients and the removal of advanced-stage-only funding criteria.
This advocacy campaign was created while actively undergoing cancer treatment.
31 May 2025 Petition Closes
The petition closed with:
17,096 signatures across New Zealand.
27 June 2025
National Media & Petition Presentation
The petition was formally presented in Parliament, marking a pivotal moment in the campaign for funded Keytruda access for early-stage triple negative breast cancer patients.
28-29 June 2025
Back-to-Back NZ Herald Coverage
Two days of national coverage in the NZ Herald brought the conversation about healthcare inequity and patient advocacy to New Zealand’s largest audience.
Meeting with Parliament
A behind-the-scenes discussion from my recent Zoom meeting with Parliament, covering key conversations, insights, and advocacy.
Click the video to watch the full discussion.
Todd Seymour, MP ACT 040326 Medicines and TNBC – A Conversation On Health Reform, Cancer & Advocacy
In this video, ACT MP Todd Stephenson speaks in Parliament following his involvement in World Triple Negative Breast Cancer Day. He reflects on my advocacy journey, medicines reform petition, and the urgent need for better healthcare and medicines access in New Zealand.
As someone living with triple negative breast cancer, this fight has never just been about me — it’s about the thousands of Kiwi families facing impossible choices while waiting for access to life-saving treatment.
Watch the full discussion and help continue the conversation around meaningful healthcare reform in New Zealand.
Long Before Cancer, Catherine Cooke Was Learning How To Survive.
“I had two choices. I could let it define me and become the same person, or I could find my power and the opposite. That’s what I’ve done.”
“I never leave anyone behind, and I will walk with you to the end.”
Petition Presented in Parliament
As many of you know, advocating for better access to life-saving medicines has become deeply personal to me. Seeing my petition to fund Keytruda for early-stage triple negative breast cancer officially presented in Parliament today was an incredibly meaningful moment in this journey.
This petition, now with the Petitions Committee, represents the voices of so many New Zealanders who believe patients deserve timely access to the treatments they need.
Thank you to everyone who signed, shared, and supported this cause along the way.
Click the video below to watch the full reel and see this important moment unfold.
31 May 2025
Petition Closes
The petition closed with:
17,096 signatures across New Zealand.
Not from a campaign office.
Not from political machinery.
From a hospital bed while critically unwell and receiving three blood transfusions.
27 June 2025
National Media & Petition Presentation
28–29 June 2025
Back-To-Back NZ Herald Coverage
RNZ & Checkpoint Features
National discussions surrounding:
- treatment inequity
- patient advocacy
- access to life-saving medicines
- healthcare pressure facing New Zealanders
Grounded In Heritage. Driven By Purpose.
Catherine is proudly descended from Dutch, German, Portuguese, M?ori (Ng?puhi), and English heritage.
She is also a proud mother of two adult children, both serving New Zealand in meaningful roles.
Her life and leadership are deeply shaped by resilience, community, family, advocacy, and an unwavering belief that people deserve to be seen, heard, and fought for.
WHY ORGANISATIONS WORK WITH CATHERINE
Why This Work Resonates
Catherine brings a combination few people possess:
- lived adversity
- commercial leadership
- strategic thinking
- emotional intelligence
- public credibility
- advocacy traction
- media influence
This is not theoretical.
It has been lived publicly, nationally, and under immense pressure.
NO PRICING.
Premium positioning.
Ways To Work Together
Advocacy Campaigns
Storytelling & Narrative Strategy
Strategic Advisory
Speaking Engagements
Leadership & Resilience Conversations
Some People Experience Adversity.
Others Rise Through It And Create Change.
RISE exists because stories matter.
Because systems should be challenged when they fail people.
Because advocacy requires courage.
And because lived experience, when combined with strategy and purpose, can become a force powerful enough to move communities, conversations, and change itself.