Professor Sir Paul Callaghan, one of the country’s preeminent scientists, is battling incurable colon cancer, and is paying for at least some of the treatment privately.
While the scientist is not critical of government funding of cancer drugs, he says fighting it is easier if one is wealthy.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“He is using money from a prestigious American prize awarded to him today to help pay the $28,000 cost of drugs he is taking for colon cancer.
“”My physicians tell me it’s incurable, but it would be nice to surprise them,” the Victoria University physics professor told The Dominion Post.
“”I’m getting a full course of chemotherapy at taxpayer expense but, in addition to that, I’m getting another drug not funded by Pharmac.”