For a trained doctor, Health Minister Jonathan Coleman was too slow to reassure cancer sufferers, before finally meeting them this week.

When my beloved Dad was dying of cancer he was offered an expensive drug to extend his life for a few more months.

It was going to cost close to $60,000 for a full treatment. The health insurance plan he'd been paying money into for decades didn't cover the drug.

So he forked out $10,000 of his own money for the first treatment – the tumours didn't shrink, so he stopped. The malevolent cancer in the kidney had spread everywhere.

He didn't want to waste more money and he became, sadly, quite resigned to his fate. He died 10 months after being diagnosed.

Late last year I met an oncologist who told me that since my Dad's death almost six years ago they have found treatments and drugs that, if he was diagnosed today, he would have been able to live another two years.

It's a powerful example of how quickly medical science changes. For more proof witness the various melanoma drugs entering the market.

Which brings me to this so called wonder-drug Keytruda. It's clearly working for some melanoma patients.

Patients who were sent home to die are now in remission, back at work – and living full lives.

I have spoken to three such people this week. In all their individual cases they have emptied out the piggy bank to stay alive.

What a fascinating and terrifying decision to face – how much would you pay for more life. More time with friends and family.

I can't help but think you might have an opinion reading this, but until you get that sledge hammer diagnosis for real you can't truly imagine what an awful situation this would be.

And here's the really unfair bit – what costs tens of thousands of dollars here costs just a few hundred dollars in Australia. This is wrong to me.

Only the wealthy melanoma sufferers, those with access to money, can survive right now.

They have money so they have hope. Those without funds, die. Brutal but it's true.

It should not be like this in New Zealand. And it's shameful we have been put in this situation.

It's wrong to me that our drug-buying agency, Pharmac, has put melanoma sufferers at the bottom of the priority list.

We pump hundreds of millions into road safety, but more people die of melanoma each year.

We have fancy new drugs for other New Zealanders with invasive and advanced cancers but not for melanoma sufferers.

If you're rich you have a chance to stay alive – if you're poor, you die.

New Zealand and Australia share the highest rates of melanoma in the world.

Their sufferers get a great deal, ours appear to have been either shafted or forgotten about. Or both.

And none of it has been helped by the Government's response, which, until this week, has been slippery, slow and awfully limp.

They have looked aloof and out of touch on a matter of life and death. Health Minister Jonathan Coleman was too slow to be reassuring.

He also refused to meet the patients privately. This from a man who is a trained GP. I simply can't understand that.

Ministers meet all sorts of flakes, lobbyists and grease-balls pushing a cause. But not a group of desperate, tax-paying Kiwis?

Poor call minister.

So they came to Coleman, to his front door this week on the steps of Parliament. And he simply couldn't ignore them any longer. Belatedly, to his credit, he met them.

Congratulations must go to Leisa Renwick, whose cancer is now in remission, for her 11,000 strong petition that she brought with her to Parliament.

She is a champion, a hero and a leader.

And finally the Government has listened. They have been forced to.

In short, we now know money has been put aside in the Budget for Pharmac to buy the latest melanoma drugs.

It may not be Keytruda, Pharmac may be negotiating with other companies for better or different drugs. Who knows. That is their job and they will know best.

But the Government, which claims to be staying out of the process, has confirmed new money will be forthcoming and Pharmac is out in the market buying new melanoma drugs.

It should never have got to this. And it should never have been this hard.

After all, battling cancer is hard enough.