‘She deserves the chance to live’: Health professionals waive fees for student’s cancer fight
The Nelson community is rallying around a young Nepalese student diagnosed with a rare form of cancer who needs life-saving surgery but is not eligible for publicly funded healthcare.
Samira Basnet, 36, was completing her medical assessment for a post-study work visa when a routine check revealed a lump in her neck.
Photo: BRADEN FASTIER / STUFF
Further investigation confirmed thyroid cancer with involvement in nearby lymph nodes, leaving the Nelson resident needing urgent surgery.
But because she is on an interim visa following her Master’s degree in Management Studies, Basnet doesn’t qualify for free healthcare. As a result, she must now raise approximately $26,000 for private surgery and a hospital stay, alongside potential follow-up radioactive iodine treatment in Christchurch.
However, Basnet’s medical team has decided to step in and help.
General surgeon Dr Ros Pochin and an anaesthetist from Manuka Street Hospital said they were waiving their professional fees and donating their time and expertise while also helping raise money. Pochin said thyroid cancer carried a 90% to 95% cure rate with surgery, but warned Basnet faced severe consequences without it.
“Without surgery she will die and she cannot go back to Nepal,” Pochin said.
“I am the surgeon trying to advocate for this scared young woman (and) I and my anaesthetist Katie Ben are donating our time.
“She deserves the chance to live.”
The diagnosis was a devastating blow for Basnet and her husband, who spent their savings and mortgaged their home in Nepal to move to New Zealand two years ago.
“My whole world shattered when I went through the reports,” she said.
“It was so hard for me to accept that I’m going through this stage.”
The situation is compounded by emotional distress over recent catastrophic flooding in Nepal, where the couple still has friends and family, some of whom remain unaccounted for.
Unable to work for the past month, Basnet said they were fully reliant on her husband’s sole income from a local blinds company.
“It’s very hard as well because we need to pay the rent, the bills, and everything,” she said.
“When you are an immigrant from another country overseas, and then you don’t have access to public health services, and neither you have visa nor insurance, that’s very hard.”
Basnet described Pochin’s support as a blessing.
“She has been giving us whatever help we need … she is just so wonderful.”
Pochin has set up Givealittle page to cover Basnet’s treatment and hospital costs.
By Andy Brew |Nelson Mail
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