Labour MP Kiritapu Allan has revealed she has been diagnosed with stage three cervical cancer.

In a Facebook post this morning, the emergency management and conservation minister said she was diagnosed last week, and the fight of her life has now begun.

The East Coast Labour MP said: "Last year, during the campaign I noticed I was getting a lot of pain in my back, stomach and legs. I put it down to lots of driving, working long hours and the general stress of campaigns.

"Earlier this year, I realised I was finding it hard to sit for a lengthy period of time. Always in a bit of pain. I started running to try and move the lower back area a little bit. Nothing seemed to take the pain away."

Allan said in late January in the car, she began menstruating and it didn't stop.

"At about 6 weeks of menstruating with no change since the GP visit, I raised it with my colleague and friend, Ayesha Verrall who is a doctor, asking if the bleeding was a little odd. She asked a few more questions and I told her about the pain. She urged me, pleaded with me, "Kiri, please, please, please prioritise this and go to the doctor tomorrow." She made some recommendations and the next day I found myself having an ultra sound," she said.

Allan said the ultrasound found a three centimetre growth and her doctor made arrangements to go to hospital the next day for a follow up.

That day happened to be when three large earthquakes struck off the coast of New Zealand.

"I found myself managing the earthquakes early morning, then headed the hospital for another ultra sound at about 8am (just before the large evacuation notice - poor timing!)," she said.

"They found the growth was approx 6cm but likely benign. We had a chat about options for removal. By and large, things seemed ok and I could get back to work that day. So I arrived back just in time for the 11.30am stand up at the beehive."

Allan said she then had to undergo a colposcopy.

"A handful of days later, I was jumping off a flight from Christchurch where I had been doing an RMA meeting and launching a community waterways partnership project, into Auckland where I was off to launch a Kiwis for Kiwi project with Sir John Key and Helen Clark the co-ambassadors for the project.

"I saw I had a missed call from the doctor with a text follow up to give her a call. I called back, going down the escalator stairs and the sound was rubbish. I skirted off to a corner to take the call properly, expecting good news.

"However, my kind doctor, who had been so incredible and taken calls from my family in the evenings, called to say the colposcopy had revealed I had cervical cancer."

Allan said she's taking medical leave to focus on "the fight I have ahead of me".

She said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will be appointing acting ministers to her portfolios.

Allan said her and her whānau are requesting privacy while they come to terms with the challenge ahead.

Source: RNZ