A weekly trip to Sydney is keeping Anne Goulter alive, but she warns New Zealanders are missing out on cancer “wonder drugs” coming down the pipeline. Every morning, Auckland school teacher Anne Goulter slips a green band onto her wrist. “Strong Anne” it reads on one side.
“F*** cancer” on the other. Resilience and defiance are two qualities she’s desperately needed since being given the news late last year that her ocular melanoma - a rare type of eye cancer - had spread to her liver. With no effective treatment available in New Zealand, the prognosis was grim.
In February, the mother-of-two was thrown a lifeline when she was given compassionate access to a breakthrough immunotherapy drug, tebentafusp, that’s just been approved for funding in Australia. Without the subsidy, a typical course would cost A$790,000. The drug, developed by UK-based biotechnology company Immunocore, has been shown to double the average survival rate, with some cancer patients who were on early clinical trials now well into their third year.
However, because it’s not registered in New Zealand - let alone funded - Goulter has to travel to Sydney every week to be given the infusions that are keeping her alive. Each Sunday afternoon, she drives to Auckland airport from her home on the North Shore. By the time she arrives at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney and checks in to her overnight accommodation, it’s after midnight, New Zealand time.
The drug is administered on Monday mornin.
