Budget 2024: Cancer patients dubious Government will deliver on promise to fund new drugs [Video]

By Felix Walton of RNZ

Cancer patients are dubious the Government will deliver on its promise to fund 13 new cancer drugs.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has come under pressure to fund the drugs after they were absent from last week’s Budget announcement.

Christchurch resident Vickie Hudson-Craig, who was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2020, said she was in disbelief when she saw the Budget last week.

“We were so sure [the funding] would be announced,” she said.

Hudson-Craig spends more than $5000 a month on dabrafenib and trametinib, the drugs she needs to stay alive.

“That mental stress of, even before you get up in the morning, not knowing where you’re going to find that money from and how long it’s going to last,” she said.

“To have it funded would have meant the stress would just disappear.”

Luxon’s pledge to fulfil his promise “soon” was not good enough, she said.

“To say …