Petition organiser pushing for more signatures

On a mission: Theresa Zame with dog Rocky at her Wainui home. Zame is battling the Government’s select committee to make changes to the wording of new legislation which will replace the outdated Medicines Act 1981. Picture by Paul Rickard

A Gisborne woman on a mission to prevent a law change that would prevent her importing life-saving medication says she’s humbled by the response to her petition.

Theresa Zame is seeking as many signatures as she can to amend the Therapeutic Products Bill which is before a Select Committee.

Under the bill’s current wording, she would no longer be able to import medication from Bangladesh for her terminal lung cancer — a change that would have a “devastating effect” on her chances of survival.

On April 21, she set up a petition to amend the bill and has garnered more than 5000 signatures in two weeks.

“I’m really humbled with the support we’ve been given. It’s fantastic we’ve been able to spread so much awareness around this,” she said.

“If a mum from Gizzy can do this, imagine what a thorough and formal consultation could have done?”

Zame was diagnosed with stage IV cancer in June 2022 and given nine months to live.

But thanks to Tagrix — an unfunded generic version of a more expensive drug which she imports via a humanitarian business — she has exceeded that prognosis and seen a significant improvement in her health.

She has successfully applied to have the petition’s end date extended to May 30 following its early success on the Parliament website.

It has also been changed into a hybrid petition, meaning paper versions can also be submitted with the final numbers.

“I think New Zealanders need to stand up more. We naturally don’t want to complain,” she says.

“If there’s a cause that’s really important, and you’ve done your homework and you know that it really needs some sort of action, we need to stand up.”

She has been supported in her fight by Patient Voice Aotearoa chair Malcolm Mulholland who believes the government isn’t aware of the potential fallout from the changes, despite their best intentions of protecting people from medicines which aren’t fit for purpose.

“It is going to prevent patients from being able to access medicines that in many instances keep them alive,” Mulholland said.

Zame has planned a demonstration for May 31 outside Gisborne’s courthouse to raise awareness for her petition, before marching at Parliament on June 7.