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A New Plymouth woman's trust set up to help her battle breast cancer has been so successful it is now aiming to help others.
Catherine Jones, 49, has to pay for the cancer drug herceptin, a treatment that could save her life.
She set up the Herceptin for Catherine Trust in a bid to raise the nearly $80,000 needed for her treatment, the Taranaki Daily News reported today.
In less than four weeks the trust has received $64,600 in donations.
Mrs Jones is overwhelmed by the support, and says the trust will continue to raise funds to help Taranaki women in need.
She has the aggressive Her2 positive breast cancer, which Herceptin targets.
While the Government has decided not to fund Herceptin, many other countries, including Australia and Britain, are funding it for women with Her2.
Here, the Government's drug-buying agency, Pharmac, will fund Herceptin for late stage terminal Her2 cancer.
Mrs Jones started treatment with the drug at a private clinic in Palmerston North last month and today has her third dose of Herceptin. She needs a total of 17 treatments, three weeks apart.
Last month Pharmac's acting chief executive Matthew Brougham defended the controversial decision not to fund breast cancer drug herceptin.
Releasing the government drug-funding agency's annual review, he said it was Pharmac's duty to focus on the evidence, not the public relations hype.
"There is not a single Pharmac staff member who, if asked to justify the decision with their hearts, would stand in the way of funding herceptin. But it is their duty to New Zealand to use their minds."
He said New Zealand spent a total of $40 million a year on pharmaceutical cancer treatments and Pharmac had to look at whether it was justified to spend $25 million of that on herceptin.
- NZPA
