Blood cancer patient Simon Clark dies before Pharmac funding breakthrough: Left a legacy [Video]

Multiple myeloma patient Simon Clark helped highlight the severe lack of modern medicines funded by Pharmac for his disease. He died days before a breakthrough in funding that will see new drugs funded for blood and other cancers. 

A father of four who became the face of New Zealand’s dire lack of funded blood cancer drugs has been remembered for his infectious love of life and devotion to his young family. 

Clark died in North Shore Hospital on June 17, aged 48 and two and a half years after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a common blood cancer. 

He is survived by wife Libby and children, Ethan, 16, Jacob and Liam, 6, and Eleanor, 5. 

The West Aucklander was featured on the front page of the Weekend Herald in February, in a report about the desperate measures his family and friends were taking in order to fundraise for a medicine, daratumumab, he needed to stay alive, but which isn’t …