America News Agency

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon issued a statement on the occasion of Daffodil Day. Luxon said one in three New Zealanders will be affected by cancer, noting that the disease affects not only those facing it, but also their families, friends and neighbours.

Luxon said that two years ago, the National government provided Pharmac with a record funding increase of 604 million New Zealand dollars. He said the support enabled the availability of 66 additional medicines, including 33 cancer treatments. These include treatments for breast, lung, bowel, prostate, kidney, liver, bladder, ovarian, thyroid, blood, and head and neck cancers.

Luxon said more New Zealanders are now able to access medicines that were previously unavailable to them, describing this as significant progress while stressing that there is still more work to be done.

Luxon thanked the Cancer Society and thousands of volunteers for their work and said his thoughts were especially with those facing a cancer diagnosis today.