25 Jun 2024

"First happy news in six years" - Cancer campaigner

From Midday Report, 12:42 pm on 25 June 2024

Melissa Vining, a well-known cancer treatment campaigner is celebrating the government's drug funding announcement as "the first happy news in six years" - but warns New Zealand still lags well behind international standards of cancer care. Yesterday the Government announced a $600 million boost to Pharmac's funding which will pay for 26 cancer treatments over the next four years, following a broken campaign promise to fund 13 new cancer drugs in this year's Budget. Charlotte Cook speaks with Melissa Vining, whose husband Blair Vining died in 2019 after being diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer.