Message from Cancer Society Chief Executive, Nicola Coom

25 March 2025

I hope you are all well and adjusting to the fresher Southern mornings.

I am still coming down from cloud nine. The Cancer Society’s inaugural research conference In Pursuit was held at Te Pae in Christchurch earlier this month and was a resounding success. We had the honour of showcasing our best and brightest cancer experts as well as international leaders. Listening to their presentations gave an overwhelming sense of hope and confidence that our cancer landscape is changing for the better.

Some speakers had a focus on early detection and cultural and geographic equity, like Professor Parry Guilford who is focused on new technology to non-invasively detect early-stage colorectal cancers, and Jessica Fitztjohn’s vibration machine that aims to detect breast cancer out in the community for a fraction of the current cost.

We heard from Dr James McKeage who has developed a machine that allows people to administer their own treatments at home, reducing the burden on our hospitals, and impact on families when they have to travel on a regular basis.

And then there is CAR T-cell therapy which, all going well, will be available in Christchurch for Non-Hodgkins lymphoma next year. This is a huge step forward for New Zealanders and we thank John Robson and his team at BioOra for progressing with the build of a manufacturing plant in Christchurch, to be opened mid-2026.

Currently New Zealanders seeking CAR T-cell therapy need to travel to Asia or the USA for treatment at a huge personal cost. I look forward to the day this can occur here.

We were honoured to host two international speakers Dr Catherine Elliot from Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and Professor Nasir Rajpoot from Warwick University, UK.

CRUK is the largest charitable funder of research in the world. Last fiscal year it spent UK £399m (NZ$902 million) on research that has directly benefited their patients. Since the early 1980s, it has taken 170 new drugs into early clinical trials. Dr Elliot’s message was on the value of partnerships and the financial and societal gains made by investing in research.

You will read more from some of these amazing people in this newsletter and we will be sharing information from them with you over the year. The biggest out-takes must be the need to keep working together to defeat cancer. I believe it can be or at least controlled.

To do this, we need to invest in our researchers and research. The only reason these amazing advancements are not already providing good outcomes for our communities is the lack of funding. Imagine if everyone in New Zealand gave a dollar to research.

I would also like to congratulate one of our supporters, Parks Towing. This business will be celebrating their 100th year in business next week. This is a significant milestone, and we congratulate you and thank you for the many years of service to our community. It is really important to us that as a small community we all support each other where we can. This month a staff member has listed their house with Harcourts Grenadier, and another has started the process of remodeling their kitchens with Prime Kitchens, their choices were purely driven by supporting business who support us.

Let’s keep supporting each other.

Nicola Coom, Chief Executive