KEY POINTS:
Roderick Catuday moved to New Zealand with his family for a new life, but instead he is facing death after being diagnosed with cancer.
He has not got the money for medicine or treatment, and his doctor says his condition is "declining rapidly".
Dr David Simpson said Mr Catuday, from the Philippines, would have only months to live if his cancer went untreated.
He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in January when he was waiting for his two-year work permit application to be approved by New Zealand Immigration.
He came to New Zealand on a work to residence visa but needed a two-year work permit to get public health funding for his chemotherapy treatment.
Dr Simpson, a consultant haematologist at North Shore Hospital, thought an email from him to immigration authorities might help speed the process - but it backfired.
When Immigration received news of Mr Catuday's illness, his work permit application was suspended and his wife Emelita, 41, an accountant, was given only a one-year work permit.
Only people who are here on at least a two-year work permit, or New Zealand and Australian citizens and residents, qualify for public health funding, meaning Mr Catuday would have to pay about $150,000 for his chemotherapy.
This was money he didn't have.
"I feel totally let down by New Zealand, and really am at a loss," said Mr Catuday, 42, a father of three children aged between 12 and 15.
"We have given up everything in the Philippines and felt so upbeat about becoming Kiwis, and then this happened and now we don't know what to do."
His wife wrote to Health Minister David Cunliffe asking for help.
The minister said he was not able to offer any assistance, but suggested they go to Auckland City Hospital to arrange for staggered payment to help ease their burden.
"We are broke, so even staggered payment won't help," said Mr Catuday, who said his family were solely dependent on his wife's income of about $450 a week after he had to stop work because of the illness.
"Our weekly rent alone is $300 and being non-residents, we don't qualify for any Government help."
Migrant Action Trust co-ordinator Agnes Granada is thinking of running a fundraising campaign among the local Filipino community to help the Catudays, but knows $150,000 would be "an impossible amount to raise".
Dr Simpson said Mr Catuday's only crime was "bad luck".
If his cancer had struck a month or two later he would have had his two-year work permit approved and gained full access to public funding.
But tears have replaced the smiles the family had when they arrived in September last year.
Said Mr Catuday: "My children cry, although they won't do it in front of me, and my wife is worried all the time, although she tries to put up a strong front.
