A coalition of New Zealand’s leading cancer charities, CANGO (Cancer Non-Governmental Organisations) has issued an urgent call to our political parties ahead of the election, to take action on cancer.

Cancer remains New Zealand’s single biggest cause of deathand 75,000 Kiwis will be diagnosed with it during the next term of government. Although great strides have been made to improve cancer survival in our country, New Zealanders still face vastly different experiences when it comes to their outcomes and the care and treatment they receive.

CANGO’s election manifesto outlines four critical solutions for the next government to act on, in the areas of medicines funding, clinical research, assistance with travel costs, and healthcare workforce.

“Kiwis deserve world-class health care to improve their quality of life throughout treatment, increase their chance of survival and ensure they can get back to their everyday livesafter cancer. But this is far from possible while we face stark disparities in outcomes for Māori and Pacific peoples and those in financial distress, slow, unfair and under-funded access to medicines, critical workforce issues in the health sector without urgent solutions, and a lack of investment ininnovation, research and clinical trials,” says Philip Hope, spokesperson for CANGO and CEO of Lung Foundation New Zealand, a member of CANGO.

“Any one of us could develop cancer so these issues are important to all New Zealanders. CANGO members are working hard to solve problems, but the big solutions require political leadership and action. In order for cancer to become a ‘good news’ story, we need our politicians to galvanise around current solutions, like they did for Covid-19, while ensuring we are set up for the future,” Philip Hope adds.

The nine member charities are asking the next government to: