A woman who discovered a small lump the size of a pinhead on her breast early this year spent weeks begging health professionals for a scan - only to discover she had stage 3 cancer when she finally got it checked out.
Antoinette Howard-Mayr, who last year moved to Ahipara near Kaitaia, told Newshub that when she rang the 0800 breast clinic number concerned about the lump, she was told the wait for a scan could be lengthy.
"She said, 'well sorry we don't have the space, the waiting time is between three months and one year'," Howard-Mayr recounts.
"I could be dead in one year."
Howard-Mayr said she wasn't considered urgent because of the size of the lump and couldn't get a referral to the breast clinic because she couldn't register with a doctor in Kaitaia.
Howard-Mayr did keep her doctor in Auckland though, wary of not being able to register with a doctor when she moved further north.
She told Newshub she tried every doctor's clinic close to Ahipara - even as far as Whangarei - with no luck, which she blames on a shortage of doctors.
Mahitahi Hauora, Northland's primary health entity, told Newshub the region has had a shortage of doctors for years.
"[The shortage] has been exacerbated recently due to extra COVID care pressures, vaccine mandates and border closures preventing overseas doctors entering the country," said Mahitahi Hauora partnership services manager Sandra Wilkinson
Howard-Mayr continued to ring the 0800 breast clinic number begging for a scan. She said her concerns weren't being heard and the stress started to take its toll.
"I was so stressed out I wanted to go and take a one-way swim out on Ninety Mile Beach because no one was listening to me - I wasn't getting any help whatsoever," she said.
"I have been stressed out for months, I've lost a lot of weight - I'm now 49kg."
Wilkinson said Mahitahi Hauora is working to gather information about Kiwis not being able to register with a doctor in Northland.
"Patients are also able to utilise Healthline for advice. Patients may be able to access primary care as a casual patient, at a local GP or accident medical provider such as White Cross in Whangarei.
"After hours services are available in Kaitaia, Kawakawa, and Whangarei. We know this is not ideal, which is why we are working to gather information to address the issue."
Newshub shared Wilkinson's advice with Howard-Mayr, but she said those services are simply not available.
"That's full of shit, there was no help, I went to those services and I never got anything from it," she said. "They are lying, that isn't true."
Howard-Mayr said after weeks of begging and relentless stress of not knowing if she had cancer or not - on top of not being able to register with a doctor - she booked a virtual appointment with her doctor in Auckland.
Howard-Mayr finally got a referral from her doctor in Auckland on February 14 and received the scan on March 4.
Northland District Health Board surgical and support services general manager Mark McGinley told Newshub that three-week waiting period between referral and appointment is an acceptable timeframe.
"The average waiting time from referral to appointment over the last 12 months for an urgent patient referral was four weeks," he said.
McGinley added that patients with a high suspicion of cancer see an average time of two weeks, and that Howard-Mayr had bee triaged as an urgent patient.
Fourteen days followed, and the scan revealed the lump in her breast was stage 3 cancer.
"It's serious, it's one step away from [stage] 4 - and there's no other number after that."
She told Newshub that if she had received a breast screening and thus a diagnosis earlier, her cancer may not have been so bad.
Howard-Mayr has begun her treatment journey including radiation and chemotherapy.
"I'm scared, I'm nervous, but I feel supported now."
