Squinting in the glare of the television spotlights, Health Minister Annette King, Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia, the Director-General of Health, Dr Karen Poutasi, and the National Screening Unit clinical leader, Dr Julia Peters, faced up to an expectant audience of more than 100.
The crowd included elderly women, young mothers nursing babies and women who will never be able to have children because of a deadly disease.
Most of those in the room had sat through 12 weeks of the cancer inquiry in Gisborne last year. Many wore yellow daffodils, a symbol of the struggle against cancer. All were assembled to hear why cervical smears had been misread and why they, their mothers and their grandmothers had developed cancer despite taking every precaution.
As the thick reports were distributed through the crowd, Mrs King read from its summary. The crowd sat patiently as the minister went through each recommendation, highlighting those that were already being addressed by the ministry and offering timetables for those yet to be dealt with.
Over and over she said that the report was not meant to attribute blame but to find a way forward and ensure that the mistakes of the past were not repeated.
She specifically addressed Mr Schoffelmeer. "This report is a significant step, for you and for your wife. This is the base for us to make sure it does not happen in the future. It's been a long time coming."
It was not quite enough for Mr Schoffelmeer, who told Mrs King: "I do need that result though, minister."
Ahenata Schoffelmeer was one of many victims of the Gisborne cervical cancer scandal.
She died aged 58 last July, midway through the cancer inquiry. She had a history of abnormalities in cervical readings, dating back as far as the early 1980s.
When she died her body was riddled with cancer - so much so that her death certificate was ambiguous and did not clearly define which cancer killed her.
That, her widower said yesterday, was just one of many injustices.
Mrs Schoffelmeer had lived in the Gisborne area most of her life.
Her problems went undiagnosed until it was far too late. Her records included two misread smears from Dr Michael Bottrill.
Mrs Schoffelmeer was a friend of another victim, Kathleen (Midge) Ward. The pair used to play snooker at the pub in Te Karaka.
Midge Ward was the first face to be identified at the inquiry. She asked for her name suppression to be lifted just before she died last June. She was 54, a mother of five.
The Schoffelmeers were with Midge Ward when she died.
"Three weeks later it was my wife dying in that bed," said Mr Schoffelmeer.
The assembled women left the auditorium quietly yesterday. It had almost been an anticlimax after the lengthy inquiry. Some cried on friends' shoulders.
Full report of the Inquiry
