Northland cancer sufferer makes documentary to push for drug subsidy

Māori healing methods have given Tanya Filia, second from right, a better quality of life after doctors gave her two months to live. Photo / Tania Whyte

A Northland cancer sufferer using Māori healing methods is making a full-length documentary that highlights a lack of taxpayer-funded financial support for terminally diagnosed patients.

Former school teacher Tanya Filia, of Opononi ,was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme grade 4, a form of brain cancer, in 2013 and underwent chemotherapy and radiation.

After a year of treatment, she went into remission.

But in 2015, her headaches were back and oncologists told her she had only two months to live.

It was then she took her chances on rongoa Māori and natural therapies.

She prays, gets mirimiri or spiritual massages, drinks herbal teas made especially for her by tohunga matakite or Māori spiritual healers, and gets intravenous vitamin C.

However, not all treatments are subsidised and her whānau is struggling to pay for them.

Filia is able to access publicly-funded rongoa Māori for just one hour every fortnight at Hokianga Hospital and has set aside $272 per week to help pay for her vitamin C and other drugs, including silvestrol.

With the help of her friend Jessie McVeagh, from Rawene, Filia made a 32-minute documentary titled He Oranga Pumau about her healing journey. It has screened throughout Northland and at Parliament, in the past four months.

She was inspired to fight for terminally ill patients by former Whangārei policeman Anton Kuraia who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia— a type of blood cancer usually fatal within a few months.

Kuraia, who died early last year, walked 809km from Whangārei to Wellington to raise awareness and money for fighting cancer naturally.

Filia said there was no other treatment outside western medicinal drugs that would help her.

The former Kohukohu School principal is now making an hour-long documentary that will be submitted to the New Zealand Film Festival with a view to highlighting a lack of government subsidies for cancer treatment drugs.

"Previous and the current Government has turned their backs on terminally ill patients and the only thing they do is to refer you to hospitals and chaplains.

"We're proactively trying to make a change towards better care and support for all terminally ill patients and their families in New Zealand. People should have a right to choose the type of treatment they prefer."

Ministry of Health acting deputy director general for Māori Health, Alison Thom, said governments over the years have engaged with traditional health practitioners to support rongoa Māori within the health and disability sector through contracts.

"This work is ongoing. We've also engaged with the rongoā whānau, including traditional healers, Māori health providers and iwi around the role traditional healing can have with mainstream services."

Thom said the ministry currently provided $1.9m for rongoa Māori across 18 providers throughout New Zealand and had recently renewed contracts for the next three years.