7 August 2019 - Hauora Tairawhiti has a role of supporting drugs-funding agency PHARMAC in its ‘‘hard calls” but not in actively campaigning for individual patients, health board members have heard.

Gisborne woman Julie Robinson — a single mother of two children — has stage 4 lung cancer and is trying to raise $150,000 for her first year of treatment with the drug Keytruda, which is not publicly funded. A givealittle page was set up for her. As of yesterday, it had raised $12,180.

Meredith Akuhata-Brown said she had read The Gisborne Herald story of Julie Robinson campaigning for drug funding to treat her cancer.

Mrs Akuhata-Brown also knew of others who had travelled overseas for treatment and wondered if the board had a role in advocating for drug funding.

Read Gisborne Herald article