Māori and Pasifika women are more likely to die of breast cancer than Pākehā, according to Breast Cancer Foundation NZ's first ever report released on World Cancer Day.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated early detection with a 50,000 backlog of women waiting for mammograms, disproportionately affecting Maori and Pasifika women.
Sixty-one-year-old Ali Coomber falls into one of the most at-risk groups for breast cancer.
Māori and Pacific Island women are more likely to die within 10 years than Pākehā.
Coomber knew the effects of cancer all too well, losing two family members to the disease last year.
She opted for a mastectomy
"Waking up every morning after that and just like a sense of big unease, a bit of dread. Like how long are you going to live?" Coomber said.
Te Rēhita Mate Ūtaetae is the Breast Cancer Foundation's first and most comprehensive report with 20 years of data.
The findings have prompted the foundation to call for more prioritisation for Māori and Pacific Island women.
Over a ten year period Pacific Island women were 52 percent more likely to die of breast cancer than Pākehā and Wāhine Māori 33 percent more likely than Pākehā.
60 percent of women aren't getting treatment within the 31 days and that is the target rate from a surgery perspective," Chief Executive of the Breast Cancer Foundation NZ Ah-Leen Rayner says.
There are several reasons, but one is that COVID has slowed the process down.
"We can't let COVID sideline breast cancer because it's the number one cause of death under the age of 65," Rayner says.
"We aren't able to provide world-class care if we are not investing adequately in that system. So do we really value women's lives?" Breast surgeon Maxine Ronald says.
Dr Ronald is the only Māori breast surgeon in the country and says the sector has been under-resourced for years with COVID just amplifying the impact.
"Moving forward, that we have a really decent robust investment, increasing those resources to make sure that those inequities and those gaps between Māori, Pacific Island and non-Māori, non-Pacific women don't increase," Dr Ronald says.
"And I can't reiterate enough on how important it is for Pacific and Māori women to have mammograms," Breast cancer survivor Ali says
Looking to bring awareness while on the road to recovery.
