Breast cancer patients who have had mastectomies have featured in a campaign to protest against women being dumped from waiting lists for breast reconstruction surgery.
Over half of women with breast cancer will lose their breasts, but those that have been waiting for breast reconstruction have been dealt a double blow as the government dumps them from surgery waiting lists to cut costs.
They say an image is worth a thousand words and that is why the breastless women who no longer qualify for breast reconstruction have captured their unique female form for a calendar.
The calendars do not just mark time, they are a graphic reminder of what the women have lost.
"I'm here today because I really want parliamentarians to see the reality that those of us that have breast cancer and have lost a breast live with from day to day," says mastectomy patient Raewyn Calvert.
Calvert is just one of many who have been cut from hospital waiting lists after government rules forced district health boards to cull them.
"I think there's a huge amount of shock, it's probably from a women's perspective, it's one of our biggest fears," says Calvert.
To have reconstruction surgery privately costs between $20,000 and $30,000.
But the government says breast reconstruction is a priority and DHBs should be funding them.
Labour list MP Maryan Street says women who want and require reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy should be able to get it in the public system.
A survey of eight district health boards by the National Party revealed half the women treated for breast cancer had been given mastectomies. But only a fifth of those had breast reconstruction surgery.
"It's an issue that's very difficult to deal with to just be dumped off a waiting list," says mastectomy patient Amanda Judd.
Some breast cancer sufferers also face further stress with the prospect of having to go to Australia for treatment.
"With the industrial unrest, the strikes, the radiation waiting times, the thought of women having to go away from their families to Australia this is not helping the situation," says National associate health spokeswoman Jackie Blue.
The women believe they are on borrowed time and say the calendar is a timely reminder to the policy makers of what they have lost.
