Please sign and share Theresa’s petition to amend Therapeutic Products Bill

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Can you imagine being given a terminal cancer diagnosis and given eight months to live?

This is the terrifying prognosis given to Theresa Zame, a much-loved member of our whanau.

She had two medication choices.

1. Tagrix, a 3rd generation medication, which can only be obtained overseas with her oncologist’s prescription for $1000 a month . . . self-funded.

2. A less effective 2nd generation medication available in NZ for $10,000 a month . . . also self-funded, but unaffordable.

Ten times the price for a less effective medication.

Which would you choose?

So she gets Tagrix from overseas with her oncologist’s prescription, AND IT’S WORKING!

Theresa has now survived past her prognosis and the cancer is shrinking.

If the Therapeutics Products Bill is not ammended it will become illegal for her and thousands of other New Zealanders to import life-saving medications.

How would you feel if you were at the mercy of others making life or death decisions for you?

We’re very appreciative of the platform The Gisborne Herald and other media have given this unfair bill, which requires ammending.

Please sign and share Theresa’s petition, which closes at the end of this week on 30th April.

https://petitions.parliament.nz/edb2f2ce-ad2d-40f3-4c70-08db3c6e10e2

Trish Brown