A wheelchair-bound Cambridge woman is making a legal challenge to the way the Ministry of Health helps the disabled.
Melanie Trevethick suffers from the degenerative disease multiple sclerosis and she wants the same benefits as those who get accident compensation.
"It's definitely time it was tested in court and I'm just the stroppy cripple to do it," she says.
Trevethick is suing under the Human Rights Act claiming that Health Ministry rules favour the injured over the very sick.
"They're based on the cause of your disability, not the individual needs," she says.
Once a classical musician, the 49-year old is now wheelchair bound with multiple sclerosis, and so cash-strapped that she and her intellectually disabled daughter have had to move into a rest home.
She is waiting on the Human Rights Review Tribunal as to whether her case can proceed.
The Ministry of Health would not comment and the Crown Law Office disputes her legal justification, saying ACC is not a valid comparison and her claim must fail.
But should Trevethick succeed, law lecturer Bill Hodge says it would have huge ramifications for the government's health budget.
A $92,000, specially-modified van was the catalyst for Trevethick's crusade. If she had had an accident, ACC would have bought it for her. But because she suffers from an illness she had to pay for it herself.
"I couldn't believe it. It seemed so unfair," she says.
Given current rules, some wonder at the chances of her challenge. Hodge says he does not see how disease can be treated as accident under the present funding system.
But Trevethick is keeping her sense of humour.
"I firmly believe that if you develop an illness, make sure you fall down the stairs first."
Even if she does not succeed, she insists she will keep fighting for herself and others like her.
