A private Member’s Bill focused on breast cancer pulled from the ballot box today will save more lives each year, National’s Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“Today is fantastic day for women in New Zealand with a Member’s Bill under my name pulled from the ballot box, which will increase the current breast cancer screening age from 69 to 74 years old.

“This is already National Party policy but now Parliament will be making a decision on whether the Labour Government also adopts it.  

“Breast cancer is the most common cancer for New Zealand women, and this one change to the screening age has the potential to save 65 lives each year.

“Labour broke their promise to increase the age and the longer we wait the more lives we could lose to this disease. I am pleased that real action will happen now and look forward to cross party support on this very serious issue.

“Other countries have already done this, such as Australia, Canada and the US, but New Zealand is lagging behind by five years. 

“It would be wrong to deny New Zealand women this important change to cancer prevention and National is proud to lead this work.”