Former Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly has returned to New Zealand from Cuba with a suitcase full of alternative lung cancer medicine, which she hopes will give her relief from the incurable disease.
The medicine is an immunotherapy drug similar to Keytruda - and after encouraging signs from tests at the Roswell Park Cancer Insititute in New York, it's created quite a buzz.
"It's a vaccine they're investigating - it's not a proven vaccine yet but it's got some promising results," she said.
"It's just simple injections, and I don't think anyone in New Zealand's had it but I'm very grateful to the Cuban government who offered it to me and I'm lucky, very privileged.
"Now I'm back and can continue on with treatment, I've brought the medicine back with me, so I'm hoping that'll give me some relief - there's no cure to lung cancer, but I'm hoping this will sort me out."
Ms Kelly had been taking medical cannabis before leaving for Cuba, which she has lauded before for its effectiveness.
But she didn't want to break the laws of the countries she was visiting, so refrained from taking any with her - and it's had a significant effect on her health.
"I've been without it the whole time I've been away and I've basically gone from walking upright to being in a wheelchair - and that's just pain, pure pain."
She said she's still waiting on New Zealand to legalise it for medical purposes.
"The interesting thing is the number of people who have contacted me saying, 'While I was here they were getting it and now they're not, I've been crippled from the pain'. It's just ridiculous."
Ms Kelly has resorted to taking morphine for pain relief, which she says has made her feel "like a zombie". She will resume taking medicinal cannabis when she gets back to Wellington later on Monday morning, despite it being illegal.
Deputy Prime Minister Bill English says new cannabis legislation is not in the pipeline, and legalising it for any reason would send the wrong message to young people.
"It's a bit of a Trojan horse isn't it? There may be some cases where it's helpful… but you wouldn't want to see it as a way of unravelling the law," he said.
"There's many families around New Zealand who can tell you how it's devastated the lives of their young people, particularly if they've got some kind of vulnerability to mental illness - so we're not going to be changing our position."
There's now an application process for medicinal marijuana use in New Zealand - and Mr English says associate minister of health Peter Dunne "gets those applications through pretty quickly".
Newshub.
