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Aletia Hudson, 33, was diagnosed with breast cancer last August.
It has been a tough year for her on many levels, but adding to the stress of her illness has been the financial cost associated with treatment.
Friends and family helped Hudson raise the money to pay for her chemotherapy because Taxotere, the drug most effective for her aggressive type of cancer, is not currently funded under the public health system.
The one thing that sustained Hudson during chemotherapy was the
promise of breast reconstruction.
Even though she had to go private for the best cancer treatment,
she was told the public health system would pay for her breast
reconstruction.
But now she has fallen off the waiting list.
Hudson says she has been told she will have to wait at least 18 months before an appointment to even talk about that reconstruction.
The only other option is to pay $25,000 to have the breast reconstruction carried out privately, but after spending around $30,000 on her chemo treatment, this is not an option.
Hudson says the problem with the public health system is not about the people that work in it, but the policies.
"My life's been put on hold for the last nine months...and I just can't help thinking [that] having to wait and entrust in the public health system,...[my] future...will get affected."
See the related video for Aletia's story...
