Weeks of waiting, then a devastating diagnosis: A mum's fight for more time

Sunday, 28 June 2026

In October 2025 Imogen Wilson had a routine mammogram and was elated when it showed no evidence of cancer. Three weeks later, she felt a lump on the side of her neck.

The breast cancer she had previously battled into remission was back, and had spread throughout her body.

Wilson has very limited funded treatment options, and needs an unfunded drug to stay alive for longer - but it could cost over $50,000 over 12 months.

Nurse Imogen Wilson, 50, waited weeks to see a specialist after learning she had stage 4 breast cancer, a delay that caused her to vomit from distress. She now needs to find big money for a drug that could keep her alive for longer. Nicholas Jones reports.

Imogen Wilson’s nursing career meant she feared the worst when she touched the side of her neck, and felt swelling.

The Christchurch mother of four had successfully battled her breast cancer into remission throughout 2021, and surveillance MRIs and mammograms in 2022 and 2023 were clear.

In 2024 she says her surgeon advised surveillance MRIs were no longer needed, and discharged her to the care of her GP.

In October 2025 Wilson had a routine mammogram and was elated when it showed no evidence of cancer. Three weeks later, she was on the bus to work at an aged care facility when she felt a lump on the side of her neck, just above her collar bone - a swollen lymph node.

“Being a nurse, I knew that this was not good,” says Wilson, 50.

Needle biopsies in the first week of November confirmed her breast cancer was back. She was booked for urgent CT and bone scans at Christchurch Hospital but endured a three-week wait.

Her GP followed up, and a specialist at the hospital wrote back, “There’s a big hold-up with CT at the moment with scans taking much longer than we’d like.”

The scans took place on December 2, and on the 10th a surgeon told Wilson she had stage 4 breast cancer that had spread to her chest and neck lymph nodes, spine and pelvis.

Once breast cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it’s generally considered no longer curable. Wilson needed a PET scan to determine the cancer’s spread, and was referred to an oncologist to plan treatment to prolong her life.

That appointment was for January 5, 2026 - more than four weeks away. She tried to go private, but nobody could see her because of the end of year disruption.

“It was impossible to see someone, and an excruciating time period of uncertainty, hopelessness and frustration,” she says.

“I was an absolute wreck, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. My daughter, who was 16 at the time, had to watch me physically vomit because I was so distressed.”

Contact the reporter: nicholas.jones@stuffdigital.co.nz

At the January 5 oncologist appointment she was told her cancer was a rare subtype of triple-negative breast cancer, which is one of the most aggressive and hardest to treat, and was also likely in her lung, and had possibly reached her liver.

Her cancer type wasn’t suitable for a funded immunotherapy drug, Keytruda, leaving chemotherapy as her only funded option.

Wilson says the oncologist asked her and her husband if they had funds to pay for unfunded drugs, including one called sacituzumab govitecan (brand name Trodelvy). This targets a protein found on the surface of the cancer cells and, once attached, releases chemotherapy to kill them.

Trodelvy is typically used when other treatments have stopped working. It isn’t a cure but can extend life. According to the Breast Cancer Foundation NZ, in one major clinical trial, people on the drug lived for a median of nearly 12 months, compared to around seven for those on standard chemo. Some people benefit for a shorter time, others for much longer.

Those results have seen the drug publicly funded in other countries, including Australia (since May 2022), the UK, Canada, the US, and a number of European countries.

In New Zealand, patients must pay. Doses are based on patient weight, and can continue until the drug stops working.

Its maker, Gilead Sciences, has a cost-share programme in place, and covers the full cost after a patient has paid for eight cycles. This means, for example, the maximum payment for a patient who is 65kg is about $52,000, for 12 months of treatment.

Patients also face hefty administration fees to receive the medicine in private clinics.

Wilson started on chemotherapy, but this stopped because it wasn’t working. She says her oncologist again raised Trodelvy at an appointment three weeks ago.

“I've started a Give-a-little page. It's so hard - you don't want to ask your friends and family for help, but, at the same time, you have to ask for help to get more time with your friends and family,” says Wilson, through tears.

“My husband would remortgage the house at the drop of a hat, but that is going to leave him in financial debt. At what point do you say, ‘Yeah, I’ll put my family in financial strife to do it.’”

Pharmac received an application to fund Trodelvy for people with locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer in June 2023, and it was added to the drug-buying agency’s “options for investment” list in December 2025.

This is the wait list of medicines Pharmac would like to fund, if or when money becomes available. There are more than 100 medicines currently on the list (Pharmac publishes the names, but not how the medicines are ranked by priority), some of which have been there for years.

Claire Pouwels, Pharmac’s manager pharmaceuticals, said the timeframe for the possible funding of Trodelvy, “depends on things like the budget we have available, the success of negotiations with suppliers, and how we’ve prioritised these medicines against others”.

Mehdi Shahbazpour, Breast Cancer Foundation NZ’s head of research and strategic programmes, says Wilson is an example of why more treatments like Trodelvy should be publicly funded, given Keytruda and chemo don’t work for everyone.

“When you’re facing incurable cancer and have no other treatment options left, access to a medicine that could give you more time matters enormously. Even a few extra months could mean more meaningful moments with family, more milestones reached, and more opportunities to access future treatments.”

Shahbazpour said medicines on Pharmac’s waiting list took an average of five to six years to be funded, and “without adequate investment by the Government, crucial drugs like Trodelvy will remain out of reach to patients who desperately need them”.

Health NZ could not provide specific comment on Wilson’s care by deadline, but provided a general statement from national chief medical officer, Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard, who apologised for “the anxiety, frustration and uncertainty that delays to scans, appointments and other planned care can cause, particularly when cancer is suspected or being treated”.

Ideally, oncology patients would be seen for their first specialist appointment within two weeks of referral, but “many patients are waiting longer”, Stokes-Lampard said.

“Improving access is a priority for us … we want to see all patients referred to oncology as quickly as possible, and we understand how difficult and uncertain the waiting period can be.

“Across the country, services are working to increase capacity, better coordinate care and ensure patients with the highest clinical need are prioritised and seen as quickly as possible.”

Wilson’s four children range in age from 32 to 17, and she has three grandchildren, the oldest of whom is 9.

“My youngest just had a formal, and I sat there crying when she had the dress on, because I probably won’t be here to see her when she's married.

“I don't know how they [Pharmac] weigh it, but it's my life. I'm still working, I'm still contributing, I'm still paying my taxes … it just feels like you're not worthy.”